Changing Path
by Xerxez
Summary: Well Ranma has had enough of nerima and leaves, not on the best of conditions. Nodoka tells Ranma of her family and her sister living in England. Ranma heads for England to begin a new life with the help of his aunt.(Hellsing, James Bond crossover)
1. Reckoning

Disclaimer: All series belong to respective owners. (And if you haven't guessed it already I am not one of them)  
  
Changing Path  
  
Chapter 1 Reckoning  
  
Ranma was sitting at the breakfast table.  
  
He had managed to wake up before Akane and his father this morning, being able to avoid Akanes bucket of water and his father throwing him out of the window.  
  
He had then helped Kasumi to bring out the breakfast, earning himself a cold glare from Akane. Well Ranma didn't care the slightest. He was tired of her temper problems and just didn't give her any attention.  
  
She looked pissed because he ignored her, and he thought, that she didn't get the chance to drench him or mallet him.  
  
He sat and ate slowly, savouring every flavour of the great meal Kasumi had made. This made the entire table gap at him, since when did a Saotome eat slowly and with manners?  
  
Genma was so shocked he didn't even try to take his sons food this morning.  
  
Soun was trying to seem like he didn't care, but the fact that the newspaper he was reading was upside down gave him away.  
  
Kasumis surprise was quickly replaced with a cheery smile.  
  
Nabiki raised an eyebrow but didn't do anything more, trying to understand the mood Ranma was in to best earn some cash from it.  
  
The only one not surprised was the youngest Tendo daughter, who instead was growing angrier and angrier by the second. She didn't know how but she knew that the baka was trying something perverted, and at the first sign she would give him an air-trip via mallet-sama.  
  
The reason Ranma was quiet was that he was thinking of an honourable way out of the fiancée mess. However much he twisted and turned the problem he couldn't find a solution.  
  
He didn't even think of marrying one of them as a solution, the little love he had for Akane was soon beaten out of him, Shampoo had used ever dirty trick in the book to get him, love potions, spells, kidnapping, and the list would go on forever. Ukyo was another problem, he had loved her a little but that was more of a brother/sister love and that had soon disappeared when she began to act like Shampoo. And Kodachi... may god have mercy on his soul.  
  
He was treated as prize to be won, everybody proclaimed they loved him, but he was still treated as dirt.  
  
When problems turned up he was expected to solve it alone, but instead of a thank you he was thrown aside and then berated for being so useless.  
  
Two years of his life was wasted here, two years of pain, sufferings and trials. Then it had peeked at the Jusendo incident, where he saved Akane and killed the Phoenix God Saffron, then the failed wedding.  
  
He had been attacked by the fathers and dressed up in a white tuxedo. He the was forced to partake in the wedding, to tired to do anything. Akane was beautiful in her wedding, almost so he would have married her. But only almost.  
  
Then the Nerima Wrecking Crew had crashed the wedding. He didn't know if he should be grateful or angry that they did that.  
  
After the failed wedding the rivals and fiancées became even more desperate. Strangely enough the old pervert Happosai had stopped to attack him, even going so far as to be serious and teach him some martial arts techniques. He was grateful for that, and now understood Happosai a little better.  
  
That didn't change the fact that he thought Happosai was a pervert, but he also had great experience and knowledge after over three centuries alive, and once he became serious he could show him a little respect.  
  
Even though Happosai had been treating him better he knew that he was breaking under the constant pressure and it wouldn't take much more before he finally snapped. He needed a way out of the engagements and soon. He flexed his shoulders as he sighed a little.  
  
He had a tired, sad look in his eyes, which was not missed by the eldest daughter.  
  
"Ranma-kun are you felling alright?" She asked with a soft concerned voice.  
  
"Yes Kasumi, I am alright, don't worry" He said with a tired voice as he stood up from the breakfast table and brought his platter to the kitchen. He returned and walked towards the door to the yard.  
  
He turned around and looked Kasumi straight in the eyes.  
  
"Thank you for the breakfast, it was delicious as always" He said with a smile and then turned towards the door.  
  
Akane heard as he said it and took it as a slight upon her cooking skills and then yelled.  
  
"Ranma no BAKA" And threw the table towards Ranma.  
  
Unfortunately for the youngest Tendo, Ranma had already made it out the door and the table flew through the air and landed in the koi-pond with a splash.  
  
Four pairs of eyes locked onto the youngest daughter. Nabiki was disgusted with her younger siblings short temper, which had led to her covered in the food that had been lying on the table. Nabiki muttered darkly and shoot her sister a glare. Now she would have to change clothes and probably come late to collage.  
  
"What? He was acting perverted towards Kasumi" Akane said defensively.  
  
"No Akane, that was called thanking someone" Nabiki said as she made her way towards her room.  
  
"Now, Akane that wasn't very nice" Kasumi said with a small frown.  
  
Akane sat down and grumbled loud to herself, thinking on how to repay the baka for her discomfort.  
-----------------

Meanwhile Ranma was standing on the porch, leaning back against the wall. He just stared out on the morning sun. He looked down on his watch.  
  
07.27  
  
He could run to the school in less then a minute, so he decided to wait another ten minutes. He didn't want to go with Akane, so he would leave the dojo after her and hopefully avoid Kuno, then he would be to school on time for a change.  
  
He had decided to just don't care about the NWC today, trying to get to school on time and maybe stay awake in class for once, and generally stay out of trouble. Tomorrow the exams would be done and the teachers would have a short rehearsal about the different things they had learned during the year. He just wanted one day of rest and relaxation and hopefully the rest would just not bug him today.  
  
He wasn't attacked in the sleep this night so he wouldn't have any problems staying awake today.  
  
He felt tense, even the meditation techniques he learned by Doc Tofu was beginning to fail.  
  
Without thinking he put his hand into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He put one into his mouth and lit the end with a little of his ki.  
  
He knew that if Doc Tofu would have seen him know he would have had a fit. He knew that the cigarettes were bad for his health, but he needed something to lift the stress and he couldn't come to school drunk.  
  
That didn't mean that didn't drink, he usually took a glass of liquor to calm his nerves before going to bed. He had begun to drink and smoke a after the failed wedding. If booze was good enough to dull the two father's sorrows, then it would be good enough to dull his to.  
  
He also knew that with the life he was living now the chances of him to actually live long enough to get cancer was, well... slim.  
  
He could feel as the dangerous nicotine spread out trough his body, making him feel a little air-headed, and making him a little bit more relaxed.  
  
He took a long drag before blowing three small smoke rings, looking as they blew away and disappeared.  
  
He just continued to star of into the distance, not even noticing as three people shocked closed the door to the porch.  
  
To see Ranma Saotome, the greatest martial artist in the world, and probably the only person with enough good health to actually become older than Happosai or Cologne, smoking a cigarette was quite the shock.  
  
They didn't say a word as they pulled back into the house, hoping that Ranma wouldn't see them.  
  
Nabiki couldn't believe what she saw and the shock was evident, her mouth silently opening and closing.  
  
The two fathers on the other hand just shrugged it of and went to play a game of shoji.  
  
Akane had been on her way upstairs to get her bag, so she didn't see the event. Nabiki just shrugged and thought of ways the get some money from all this and then remembered she would be late for school.

--------------------------

Akane ran down the stairs and looked for Ranma, but couldn't find him. She saw as Nabiki walked towards the front gate.  
  
"Nabiki where is Ranma?" She asked.  
  
Instead of getting an answer from Nabiki she could hear Ranmas voice from somewhere in the yard.  
  
"I am in the backyard. And if you don't want to be late to school you should probably go now. I will catch up later."  
  
Akane looked down on her watch and saw the time. She then took of a full speed towards the school. Nabiki did the same only she didn't run as fast.  
  
Ranma stood concealed in the shadows, the only thing seen the red glow of his cigarette. He flicked the cigarette way and then put his foot on it to extinguish it.  
  
He looked down on his watch again, a tired smile coming to his lips.  
  
He leaned his head to the right, a loud crack was heard and he then took off up on the roofs, running with speed and agility no mortal should be able to achieve. He jumped a distance of thirty feet landing without a sound. The process repeated, jumping from rooftop to rooftop.  
  
He jumped over the wall surrounding the school and quickly scanned the area for any of his rivals/fiancées.  
  
The area was clear except for some regular students.  
  
He slowly made his way towards the backside of the building, making sure to avoid Kuno and the Hentai Horde.  
  
A window in third floor was opened a quick jump later he was in the building. He really didn't want to see anything of Kuno or the rest of the goon squad so a stealthy entrance was needed.  
  
Even though Kuno had finished going to school, the collage he and Nabiki was going to was lying just hundred meters from Furikan High School.  
  
He walked trough the floor and then stopped at his classroom. The door was closed so he just leaned his back toward the door and closed his eyes. He let his mind drift until he heard someone clear her throat.  
  
He opened his right eye and could see Miss Hinako in her adult form standing before him.  
  
"Mr Saotome, would you please move aside so I can unlock the door"  
  
He just shrugged his shoulders indifferently and took a step to the side, allowing Miss Hinako to unlock the door. She turned towards him with an interested expression.  
  
"And may I ask why you are here so early Mr Saotome?" She asked as she studied the boy closely.  
  
"Last week here at the school, might as well give you the satisfaction at seeing me come to school early for a change" He said indifferent.  
  
Miss Hinako only nodded unlocking the door and opening it.  
  
Ranma calmly let Miss Hinako walk in first the followed her slowly into the classroom. He then walked to the rows at the back at took his place at the desk nearest the window.  
  
He leaned backwards in his chair, putting his hands behind his head in a lazy manner.

------------------

He looked at the clock at the wall. The class would begin in another fifteen minutes. Already some students were arriving. Outside he could hear the screams of pain from the gathered male population of Furikan High School and an angry yell coming from the Akane.  
  
He didn't even bother to look out, knowing full well how it would end.  
  
Soon he could hear the voice of Kuno proclaiming his undying love for the fierce tigress Akane and his pig-tailed goddess. He then began to recite some crapy poetry which was abruptly stopped in mid sentence.  
  
He only shock his head, did Kuno never learn.  
  
He could hear the late signal sound and he looked around and could see every one in his class except Akane.  
  
"Now class today we will have a general repetition of the major parts of English we did this year to make you..."  
  
He could hear as someone ran down the halls and opened the door with a loud slam. There was Akane standing out of breath with a slightly dirty school uniform. She began to walk towards her seat.  
  
"Sorry I am late Miss Hinako" She said as she made her way between the rows of desks.  
  
"For interrupting my class and coming late you will stand in the hall on bucket duty" She said and pointed towards the door.  
  
Akane couldn't believe it, she never needed to stand in the hallway if she came late, it was always Ranma because he delayed her with his fight with Kuno. She then saw as Ranma sat at the back row looking completely uninterested.  
  
"But Miss Hinako Ranma..." She tried to excuse herself and blame Ranma for her late arrival, but was interrupted by Miss Hinako.  
  
"Was on time today and he has been here for the last twenty minutes, now stand in the hall Miss Tendo" Hinako said.  
  
Akane was really angry now but wasn't stupid enough to attack Ranma while Hinako was around. She was the schools most popular girl, she shouldn't have to stand in the hall holding buckets, the pervert Ranma should. She was really fuming in anger now, slowly boiling the water in her buckets away with her battle aura.  
  
Nobody noticed because the door was closed.

-----------------------

Miss Hinako was having a really unusual day, first Ranma Saotome, the man that never got to class in time, arrived twenty minutes before the bell, and then he was NOT sleeping during her class. Will wonders never cease?  
  
She wrote a sentence in Japanese on the blackboard and then turned towards the class. She needed someone that would translate this sentence, she rested her eyes on Ranma.  
  
Maybe now she would see how good Ranma was at English.  
  
"Ranma translate this please" She said and pointed towards the black board.  
  
Ranma just groaned and walked up to the front of the class. He took the piece of chalk Miss Hinako offered him and he stood before the board reading the sentence a few times.  
  
Miss Hinako knew that he wouldn't be able to translate it, she knew no one in the entire room could do it, it was really advanced English and should be used as an example on proper sentence structure, not translating.  
  
She was about to tell him to sit down on his desk when he began to write something under the text. She gawked in surprise, not only had he been able to translate it, but without a single error in spelling.  
  
Ranma just handed her the chalk and walked back to his seat.  
  
"Well done Saotome, you got it correct" She said with a little awe in her voice, even she would have had problems with that sentence.  
  
He just shrugged.  
  
During the next forty minutes she was giving the class and especially Ranma many difficult questions. Ranma answered every one correct.  
  
She then walked to the door and opened it talking to Akane on the other side.  
  
"Miss Tendo please come in, and don't interrupt class any more."  
  
Akane made her way towards her seat, glaring daggers towards Ranma the entire time.  
  
He either didn't notice or didn't care, because he was concentrating on the lesson.  
  
This made Akane even angrier, the red battle aura making the students edge away from her.  
  
Soon the entire area around Akane was vacated, leaving an angry Akane sitting in the middle alone. Akane just knew that Ranma had been a pervert again. And as Miss Hinako walked over to him she just snapped.  
  
"Ranma, stop womanizing you pervert" She yelled out angrily.  
  
"Eh? What are you talking about?" He asked out slightly bored, he had heard all her speeches before.  
  
"That's why you didn't go to school with me, so you could hang around with that bimbo Shampoo isn't it?" She yelled out again.  
  
"No Akane, I was here twenty minutes before school started" He explained like he was talking to a little child.  
  
Now the entire class was staring at Akane, knowing this time that Ranma hadn't done anything wrong.  
  
"Then you were being a pervert with Miss Hinako" Akane was now total furious, only hearing what she wanted to hear.  
  
Miss Hinako and the rest of the class looked shocked at Akane.  
  
Ranma just sighed, and then turned towards Miss Hinako.  
  
"Miss Hinako? Are we having a secret love affair behind every ones back?" He asked the stunned teacher with a tired voice.  
  
Miss Hinako shifted her gaze to Ranma, looking more shocked then she already was.  
  
"N...NO" She said a little louder then necessary, shacking her head. The prospect of having an affair with a student and especially Ranma was laughable, he never got to school on time, he slept during classes, he always started fights... and he was kind, honourable and a real hunk.  
  
Her thoughts took a 180 degrees turn, okay so maybe it wouldn't be too bad to have an affair with Ranma.  
  
She cleared her mind of any hentai thoughts before they would interfere with her class.  
  
Akane didn't calm down  
  
"Well I don't remember anything like that" Ranma said with a calm expression.  
  
Her stubbornness and pride wouldn't let her see that she was wrong.  
  
"I know you're doing perverted things together, so just confess" Had she had a clear head she would have seen the danger in accusing a teacher of having an affair with a student.  
  
Ranma just turned towards Miss Hinako again.  
  
"Have we had wild passionate sex together?" Ranma asked in the calm voice again.  
  
At the question Miss Hinako blushed, but answered.  
  
"No" But a little bit of longing was heard in her voice.  
  
Ranma muttered to himself a little louder than he wanted, but the only ones that heard it was Miss Hinako and the two perverts Hiroshi and Dagasuki.  
  
"A shame really... definitely wouldn't have been a bad thing... stupid fiancées"  
  
At those words Miss Hinako blushed and her head was filled with many different visions of her and Ranma doing the naughty.  
  
Hiroshi and Dagasuki just gave him an approving smile.  
  
He then said to the rest of the class and especially Akane.  
  
"Well I don't remember anything like that either, and even if I had it wouldn't be any off your goddamned business" Ranma said with a lazy smile.  
  
Akanes battle aura was beginning to melt the floor, because of the immense heat that it generated. Now the students backed away from Akane, moving towards the door.  
  
Miss Hinako was in her own little fantasy world, a small blush adorning her cheeks. But when she saw that everybody was beginning to move away from Akane and that she was moving towards her with a mallet in her hands she took out her yen coin.  
  
"Happo-five-yen-yetsu" She said and drained the girl of her ki.  
  
Ranma raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.  
  
"Ms Tendo I warned you of interrupting my class again, now go to the hall and hold buckets" Miss Hinako said still, with the blush on her cheeks.  
  
Akane groaned and stood up slowly, glaring daggers at Ranma as she slid the door shut.  
  
The class continued like it should, Ms Hinako going trough the chapters they should read.  
  
Nothing unusual happened until Kuno burst trough the door in his samurai garb and wooden bokken.  
  
"Foul sorcerer Saotome, your grip in the fierce tigress Akane and the pig- tailed goddess end today. I will smite thee." Kuno said as he took up a heroic pose, or so he thought.  
  
Ranma turned his gaze towards Ms Hinako.  
  
"May I?" He asked tiredly.  
  
"Uh... sure" was the reply.  
  
Ranma nodded and walked out of the door followed closely by Kuno. He shut the door and the class just blinked their eyes in unison. They didn't expect Ranma to return to class now that he needed to fight Kuno, but was surprised as they could hear a single loud bang. The door opened and Ranma walked in and sat as his seat without a word.  
  
-------------

At the end of the class Ms Hinako asked Ranma to stay behind so she could talk to him.  
  
"Mr Saotome could you please explain how you got so good at English, you have slept trough every lesson?" She asked as she gathered her books together.  
  
"I have travelled around since I could walk, being to different countries. There aren't many that can talk Japanese outside of Japan, but you will always find someone that could talk English, so I picked it up during my travels." He said as he looked out of the window.  
  
"So how good are you really?" She asked.  
  
"Can speak and write it fluidly, without an accent" he said as he turned and walked trough the door.  
  
------------------------

Ranma walked up and sat under the tree. Hiroshi and Dagasuki sat on each side of him, and the tree of them was talking idle. He relaxed a bit it was nice to just sit around and talk with a couple of friends.  
  
Soon they were in on the topic of girls and instead of blushing and calling them both perverts like he usually did, he just laughed and answered their questions honestly. This made them accept him more, he was for the first time really able to enjoy life. He had understood that after the Jusendo incident, martial arts isn't everything, friends was what really mattered. Unfortunately his closest friend was a homicidal maniac with the name Ryoga.  
  
So after awhile he began to hang around Hiroshi and Dagasuki more and more. They didn't blame him for anything and didn't demand anything from him, and after he stopped to talk about martial arts they quickly became friends.  
  
He found it easier to be around people if he was a little more laid back and didn't criticise them all the time. When in a conversation before he always just talked about martial arts, but now he didn't even bring up the subject any more.  
  
Instead they talked about the wonderful world of football.  
  
They and a couple of other guys usually played some football in the evenings. But instead of playing for victory they played for the fun of the game. That was another thing he had learned, victory isn't everything. He didn't use his martial arts abilities, that would just ruin the fun.  
  
He stopped talking as he felt the familiar ki signatures of Shampoo, Akane and Ukyo moving towards him.  
  
"Gotta go" He said and then took of in the opposite direction managing to avoid being seen.  
  
He ran up on the rooftops, managing to put a good distance between himself and school.  
  
He really didn't want a confrontation with the fiancées now. He could return to the dojo in awhile, that would be the first place the fiancée brigade would look. He then began to roof-hop towards juban and his mothers' house.  
  
-----------------

Ranma sighed as he left the school. He was wearing a school uniform today, his mother had insisted on it, it was his last day in Furikan High School. The exams where made and Ranma would love to see the shocked faces of the teachers when the graded the tests. He was pretty sure he would get top grades, those two months of studying with Hiroshi and Dagasuki had paid out.  
  
The day had been normal, no pissed of fiancées, no blood thirsty rivals, and especially no magic at all, heck even the principal was dressed in a normal suit and held a good bye speech without the Hawaiian accent.  
  
He had managed to finish his exam test without a single interference. But he knew as soon he made it back to the dojo he would have hell to pay. The last two days he had managed to avoid trouble. He would have to put up with the NWC the entire summer until he began the collage. But he knew that he would need to find someway out of the engagements soon.  
  
As he left the gates of the school his danger senses went off to red alert. He jumped to the left and was able to avoid Ryoga as he landed where he was standing a second ago. A 5 feet crater was there where Ryoga had landed. He was snarling towards him.  
  
"Ranma you hurt Akanes feelings, now prepare to die" The last he said as he threw a couple of ki charged bandanna shuriken. He leaned left and let the bandannas fly by his head, cutting trough a tree behind him.  
  
Ryoga charged him, his umbrella in his hand like a club. Ryoga gripped the umbrella with both hands and then brought it down to crush Ranmas head. Ranma dodged the strike and was able to get behind Ryoga and delivered a kick to his back. He was about to follow up with a punch but his danger senses went off again. He jumped back and away from Ryoga and he saw as a couple of chains passed where he had been only moments before. He looked at the faces of Ryoga and Mousse and could see that both where after blood. He could fell a third battle aura behind him and didn't even need to look to know it was Kuno.  
  
So Ryoga, Mousse and Kuno are after me. This is bad. He knew that he could take them down, but that it would be a though fight.  
  
If they had paid attention they would have seen that he didn't have his cocky grin but an emotionless mask.  
  
"Let's dance" he said in a voice that made the entire student body get a cold shiver of fear up their spine.  
  
Ranma wasn't happy and he was out after blood.

-------------------------

"Stupid assholes, can't leave me alone for even a day" He muttered as he staggered towards the Tendo Dojo.  
  
After the fight with his rivals Akane had come out of school and had hit him with her goddamned mallet for picking on poor little Ryoga. His temper with the youngest Tendo was a bad as it could get, heck if Saffron came and kidnapped her again he would hold open the door for him, and probably give him a big thanks.  
  
He arrived at the Dojo, opened the door and was greeted with Nabiki standing there with her hands open, waiting for money.  
  
"Give me 5000 yen and I will tell you how to make up to Akane" She said with a smug expression.  
  
"Read my lips Nabiki, NO. Do you understand a NO?" He hissed out and moved past a shocked Nabiki. Since when had Saotome grown a spine?  
  
Ranma made his way towards the stairs, he would get his backpack and then leave for his moms' house. It had taken almost all his ki reserves to heal the wounds from his fight earlier. Especially the slash across his chest where Kuno had got lucky and hit him with his family katana. Or the five broken ribs he had sustained after a perfect Shi Shi Houkodan. Or all those small cuts and bruises after Mousse egg bombs.  
  
He wasn't completely recovered yet, but most of the injuries had begun to heal, and he was sore over the entire body. And it would take some time before his ki reserves refilled.  
  
As he was about to leave the Dojo he heard his pops voice from the porch.  
  
"Ranma would you please come here for a moment."  
  
Ranma mentally argued if he should do as he was told or just leave. As he entered the room he could see Soun, Genma and Akane sitting at the table every one having a serious expression.  
  
He took seat opposite the tree, nearest the door.  
  
"Ranma, Akane says you have betrayed her with your teacher." Soun said, anger evident in his voice.  
  
"No, I haven't" He said a little angry.  
  
"Are you saying that I am lying" Akane said with a death glare.  
  
"No, I am saying that I haven't done anything with Ms Hinako." He said, his voice colder than ice.  
  
"Don't lie boy" Genma scolded him.  
  
"We now you have done it, Akane told us so" Soun continued.  
  
"Well okay, I have seduced Ms Hinako and we had wild passionate sex and now I am planning to run away with her and marry her" He said his voice full of sarcasm.  
  
"I knew it, you pervert" Akane screamed.  
  
"To restore the Saotome honour you will marry Akane today" Soun said.  
  
"I will NOT marry that bastard" Akane screeched and stood up.  
  
"Do what you want, I am out off here" Ranma said as he stood up and turned towards the door.  
  
He didn't get there because Akane smashed the table over his head knocking him down to the floor.  
  
"YOU BASTARD, I WILL NOT MARRY YOU" She said as she continued to hit him over the head with the table.  
  
He could hear a loud crash and Ukyo and Shampoo entered the room through the newly made door.  
  
"Ayia, What is kitchen destroyer doing with Shampoos airen?" She said and withdrew her bon bori from stuff space.  
  
"Sugar, let my Ran-chan go immediately or else" She had her giant spatula in her hands.  
  
The tree fiancées attacked each other, and after awhile Mousse, Kuno, Ryoga and Kodachi joining into the fight. Ranma was still lying on the ground, being hit by stray kicks and weapons from all the combatants.  
  
Ryoga calmly walked over to him and the stood and looked down on him.  
  
"I will promise to take care of Akane Ranma" He said with a sadistic grin.  
  
He lifted his foot and then tried to break Ranmas neck. Ranma managed to roll to the side, and Ryogas foot just hit dirt.  
  
Ryoga became angry and then lifted Ranma with one hand around his neck.  
  
"You just don't know when to give up Ranma" he said with a hiss.  
  
Ranma just spit on his face, the blood and saliva running down Ryogas right eye.  
  
Ryoga became furious and threw Ranma at the wall. He slowly slumped down to the ground, breathing hard. Ranma was really angry now, his face became twisted in an evil grin and his hands clenched into fists.  
  
"I have had enough" Those four words made Ryoga freeze in his tracks.  
  
A completely black aura of hate surrounded Ranma as he stood up. With a quick jump he was standing before Ryoga, and with a single punch he knocked Ryoga down to the ground, blood and a couple of teeth flying through the air. Ryogas jaw was broken and he was clutching his face and whimpering.  
  
"Ranma stop picking on poor Ryoga" Akane sad as she turned towards them. Ranma shifted his gaze from Ryoga to Akane and he began to slowly walk towards her.  
  
"You shut the fuck up. I have had it with you, you fucking bitch. I will not marry you or any other one here. I don't care how or why the engagements where created, but they are all off." He screamed at her face.  
  
Everybody was quiet, nobody had seen Ranma really mad before and the sight was scary. Then Genma, who never had much intelligence, decided to open his mouth.  
  
"But it is a matter of honour that you marry a Tendo"  
  
Ranma turned towards his father.  
  
"You can take your honour and shove it where the sun doesn't shine for all I care. THE ENGAGEMENTS ARE OFF AND I AM OUT OF HERE."  
  
He turned towards the door.  
  
"RANMA NO BAK..." Akane wasn't allowed to finish because she had Ranmas fist buried deep in her gut. Akane dropped the mallet to the ground trying to regain her breath.  
  
"I never want to see any of you again." He said with a voice cold as death.  
  
Ranma walked trough the door and picked up his backpack and then he left, leaving a group of stunned people behind him.

--------------------------  
  
Ranma walked up the steps leading up to his mothers' home. He put the backpack on the ground and knocked on the door. He waited awhile before his mother Nodoka opened the door.  
  
"What happened?" She said as she saw her sons dirty, torn and bloody clothes.  
  
"Broke off from Nerima" Was all he said.  
  
Nodoka pushed him inside, taking his backpack and closing the door. He took a seat at the kitchen table and was about to tell her what happened when it knocked on the door. Nodoka walked to the door closely followed by Ranma. Ranma hoped it wasn't the NWC, they couldn't have found him this quick. He prepared to fight, but when Nodoka opened the door he was shocked to see the person standing there.  
  
It was Happosai, grandmaster of the anything goes school and biggest pervert in Japan. He looked around and the stepped in.  
  
"We must talk Ranma"He said in a very serious voice.  
  
They walked into the kitchen and took a coup of tea.  
  
"What happened to you Ranma" Nodoka said again.  
  
Ranma sighed and then began to tell what had happened, the training trip, Nerima, the curse, everything. He was interrupted sometimes by Happosai who confirmed Ranmas tail.  
  
Nodoka looked shocked, she had known about the curse, but the rest...  
  
"GENMAAAAAA!" Was heard over most of Tokyo.  
  
"So what are you going to do now?" She asked seriously.  
  
"Don't know, I can't stay here though, they would soon find me and all the madness would begin again." He said.  
  
"So you are leaving?" She asked a little sad.  
  
"I love you mom, but I don't want you to be hurt, these fight will sooner or later kill someone and I don't want it to be you." He said  
  
"Where are you going then?" She asked.  
  
"Don't know, but I will make it don't worry" He said and shrugged his shoulders.  
  
Nodoka sat in her chair quietly, she was looking down in her tee. It looked like she was thinking something over. She finally looked up at Ranma.  
  
"Ranma there is something I need to tell you, it is about Genma, and my family. And from what you told me I can't keep it secret anymore." She said and sighed.  
  
"What is it mom?"  
  
She left the room and came back with a small box and her katana. She placed them in front of her on the table.  
  
"First I need to tell you how it all started. My mother was a traditional Japanese, a member of the Takeda clan. She was working as a translator and secretary for the government when she met my father. He was from Great Britain and was here in Japan on business when he met my mother during his work. He fell in love and they married and tree years later I was born. My mother... she died in childbirth and after that my father and I moved to Great Britain." She took a pause in her story and looked up at Ranma.  
  
"I was raised in England, but usually visited Japan on my holidays. Three years after my mothers' death my father remarried and one year later my younger sister was born. My stepmother was a kind woman, and together with my younger sister I had a good childhood."  
  
"When I became older I began to work for the British secret service, and during my work I met a man named James, and he was also working for the government, we got engaged and was about to marry when my father and stepmother died. James was then needed in other countries, and we became more and more separated." She sighed at the memory  
  
"After some time I moved back to Japan, because James work was becoming more and more dangerous and he didn't want to see me a young widow. We left on good conditions, but as soon I came home I found out my grand parents had engaged me to another man, Genma Saotome. I was furious of course, who had heard of arranged marriages in these modern times?"  
  
Ranma smiled a little at that, his mother was in the same both as him.  
  
"In the end I married Genma, not willingly of course. But I still hear from James and my younger sister from time to time."  
  
"That is quite an exciting life mom. But was has this to do with the fiancées problems? If you will tell me to marry one I am out the door in a second" Ranma said.  
  
"The point of my story is I was already pregnant when I returned to Japan. You aren't Genmas son, you are James. And now that I know what kind of people your fiancées are I would NEVER let you marry one of them" She said.  
  
Ranma only blinked.  
  
"Hah ha ha ha! Man I always knew that Ranma couldn't be Genmas son, the fat fool would never ever be able to get a son like Ranma." Came from Happosai.  
  
Ranma blinked some more, and then he did the only thing possible.  
  
Fainted.  
  
Ranma woke up after a short while.  
  
"Man I had the strangest dream, I dreamt that Genma wasn't my father" he said as he rubbed the spot where he had hit his head on the table.  
  
"That wasn't a dream Ranma" He heard Happosai say.  
  
He then was really shocked. Genma wasn't his father. The man he had been raised by wasn't his father. He sat in shock for a couple of minutes trying to comprehend it. And after a while he asked in a low voice.  
  
"What about the sepekku-contract?"  
  
"I made that to keep Genma inline, but it backfired and he used it against me" She said now slightly angry.  
  
"And what about the promises made by Genma?"  
  
"Everyone stated "son of Genma Saotome, student of anything goes. They are invalid, you aren't Genmas son." She said calmly.  
  
"And for the student part, well that is the reason I am here." Happosai said.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Ranma you are the best fighter I have ever met, and that isn't a small feat mind you. You also have a good heart, a little too prideful and noble, but still a good heart. I am growing old, it won't be many more years before it is my time to finally rest, and I don't want to leave my school, the only thing I really can take pride in from my life, to Genma and Soun. I have lived for over three hundred years, and my school is the only good thing I have left. I want to leave it in competent hands, and if I leave it to you I know you will not only master it, but perfect it as well. That is the reason I want to announce you the new grandmaster of the anything goes school of armed combat.  
  
"Armed combat?" Ranma said slightly confused.  
  
"Yes, anything goes wasn't meant to be a martial arts schools, it was meant to be a school of war. When you killed saffron you showed me that you would kill to protect other people, even if it was people that had made your life a hell. That is what I seek in my heir, the will to protect others, even if it means to kill." Happosai said.  
  
"Thanks for the honour, but I still don't think that will be enough to stop the Nerima Wrecking Crew from trying to get me back.  
  
"I know dear and I have an idea" Nodoka said.

--------------------------

They where now currently sitting in the yard, everyone clothed in ceremonial garb.  
  
"I, Nodoka Saotome current head of the clan Takeda and Saotome, announce Ranma Saotome as the head of the clan Takeda" She said and handed him the family katana and the small box. She would remain head of the Saotome clan to keep Genma in check. He opened the box and found 14 small double edged throwing daggers.  
  
"It is a part of our family tradition, but you will have to talk to my sister to understand why" Nodoka said.  
  
Ranma bowed towards his mother, having placed the family katana to his right.  
  
"And I Happo Sai, current grandmaster of the anything goes school of martial arts, recognises Ranma Saotome of the Saotome clan and Takeda clan as grandmaster of the anything goes school of armed combat." He then handed Ranma an additional katana, pulling it out from hidden weapons space.  
  
Ranma made a deep bow towards Happosai, showing him the uttermost respect.  
  
"Thank you Grandmaster Happosai" He said.  
  
Happosai smiled a genuine smile, something he hadn't done in over a century.  
  
"No thank you Grandmaster Saotome, for easing an old mans fears" He said and bowed back.  
  
"Now gentlemen, how about some tee" Nodoka said and stood up and picked up a tray from the kitchen leaving the two men alone.

-----------------------

"Ranma I have taught you everything I can, but I still have one last thing to give you." He said and pulled out a thick old book.  
  
"I have travelled this world for over three centuries, and this book contains all my gathered knowledge. Both when it goes to magic, martial arts, mythology, tails, songs, rumours, I mean everything. It is written in Chinese, my native language, so you will have to learn it first." He said with a smile.  
  
"Thank you" he said.  
  
"So when are you going to leave for England?" Nodoka asked as she came back with the tee.  
  
"Tomorrow, I still need some new gear, most of my clothes left are only training gis, and the rest are too small."  
  
"Well, as the head of the Takeda clan you have access to the clans bank account, so you shouldn't have any problem with money. And don't worry to spend it, we are the last two Takedas and I have my own account, so the money is all yours.

------------------------

He left them an hour later to go get some new clothes and maybe a haircut. The braid was a little bit childish and if someone got hold of it in a fight he would be in trouble.  
  
He went looking for clothes that were both practical in a fight, were looking good and didn't draw any attention. His red Chinese silk shirt was not directly inconspicuous.  
  
When he went past a store he found exactly what he was looking for. When left the store thirty minutes later he had a pair of brown trousers, a simple white T-shirt, a grey sweater, a pair of boots and a black trench coat. The last was to give him some protection against rain and water, and would make it able to store more things with the hidden weapons style, much like mousse white robes, just a lot more inconspicuous.  
  
He had bought more clothes, mostly the same clothes in different colours. He looked down on his watch and then headed toward the nearest barber to get his hair cut.  
  
He defiantly knew that the NWC wouldn't stop bugging him so he decided to make it harder for them to find him, or rather for Nabiki to find him. The description would probably be along the lines of "red Chinese silk shirt, pigtail and blue eyes", and the change in hairstyle and clothing, together with a pair of black shades, would throw most off.

----------------------

He arrived back to his mother house and saw as both Happosai and his mother where drinking tee on the porch. He had a talk with both his mother and Happosai about his plans and he then checked with the Tokyo airport for any planes to London, he got his ticket with a flight 05.30, hoping that Nabikis goons wasn't up so early.  
  
After that he switched into a training gi and walked out to do some katas. He stood silently for a second and then moved with a fluid grace, punches and kicks flying towards an invisible opponent.  
  
"Ranma may a see your skill with the sword" He heard Happosai and turned to see him sit on a rock.  
  
"I don't really like to use weapons, if an opponent takes it from you you're at a severe disadvantage." He said.  
  
"Only if you put all your strength and skill in the weapon. If you continue to train in unarmed combat your skill as a weapon user will still increase.  
  
But don't forget that using a weapon means you have to train twice as hard, first with and then without the weapon. If you train with a weapon and then encounters one armed opponent while unarmed you have a better chance in defeating him. You will know the flaws of the weapons. Never rely on one, but use them to gain an advantage on a dangerous enemy."  
  
"I understand sensei" Ranma said with a bow.  
  
"And Ranma"  
  
"Yes Sensei"  
  
"NEVER enter a real fight with your weapon if you aren't prepared to kill your opponent."  
  
"So I will only use a weapon against an opponent I intend to kill"  
  
"No I didn't say that, only enter a fight with a weapon if you might need to kill, that doesn't mean you have to kill but you should be prepared to do it if the worst happens."  
  
"Worst?"  
  
"They threaten a life of an innocent, then kill immediately to end that threat:"  
  
"I understand sensei"  
  
"Ranma, you must understand that killing is not honourable."  
  
"So I shouldn't kill?"  
  
"Ranma a simple question, is your honour worth the life of an innocent"  
  
"No"  
  
"Remember that, killing is not honourable but letting an innocent die is even worse. Honour isn't gained trough killing, it is gained trough when you help people"  
  
"I understand sensei"  
  
"Now let me see your skill with the blade"  
  
Ranma went and got the two katanas, unsheathing both from their scabbards. He went into a two hand weapon stance. He tried to remember every time he had seen Kuno with his bokken. He had to admit, Kuno was a skilled swordsman, but that didn't change the fact that he was a delusional fool. Ranma started slowly, striking and parried an invisible opponent: He went faster and faster, soon being only a blur dancing around in the yard, soon he was invisible to any one but a trained eye, the only thing seen was small glints from the blades and blurry afterimages.  
  
"Impressive Ranma, you are almost as good with the blades as unarmed."  
  
"Thank you sensei"  
  
"Well I have to wish you good luck on you travels"  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"Oh and Ranma..."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Do get a girl in the sack soon"  
  
"We aren't related are we?"  
  
"Where did you get that from?"  
  
"You sounded exactly like mom"  
  
"Haa haa haa haa, humour you don't lack in any case at least"  
  
Ranma turned towards Happosai with his trademark cocky smirk.  
  
"I have the full intention on being around long enough to go your children on the nerve" Happosai said.  
  
"If there is anything you need from me, just ask mom and she will contact me" Ranma said.  
  
"Well see you later Ranma, I will go scare Genma and Soun now" Happosai said with a grin.  
  
Ranma turned around and then felt as he was hit by cold water and the instantaneous change to a girl.

"SWEETO!" Came a yell and he could feel as something patted him on his butt, and then grabbed into his chest.

Ranmas left eye twitched violently and he then grabbed into the neck of the pervert and then threw him into LEO.

"You F-ing sonuva "#&%¤", I will rip your head of if you do that again" Ranma screamed towards the flying pervert.

Happosai just smirked, his heir became really pissed sometimes.

"Some things just never change" Ranma muttered darkly

-----------------------

Ranma whipped away a tear from his eye as he hugged his mother goodbye, he was standing at the Tokyo airport.  
  
"Do call me Ranma" She said as she hugged him for dear life.  
  
"I will mom" He said  
  
"And met a girl, get married and give me a dozen or so grandchildren" She said jokingly.  
  
"See what I can do. And if you see Happosai, please thank him from me" He replied.  
  
He began to walk away towards the gate of his flight waving goodbye. He checked in his luggage and then walked trough the metal detector. Nothing happened. He was carrying four daggers in every sleeve, two in each boot and two under his shoulder blades, but in subspace of course. The two katanas was also in subspace. He was thankful for the technique, it would have been one hell of a problem to get the weapons past the custom.  
  
He slumped into his seat in first class taking a look out the window. He was quite surprised to find out he was registered as both Japanese and British citizen, but his mother had told him she was born in Britain so what the heck.  
  
He could feel as the plane took off and he leaned back in his seat falling asleep almost instantly.  
  
On the ground a pair off eyes watched the plane as it took off. The figure wished his great grand son good luck, then slowly disappeared into the shadows.  
  
Authors Notes  
  
Okay, so Ranma is out of character. He had a fight with a god, survived it and killed the god. I think anyone would change after that.


	2. New beginnings

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**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the series/movies/books/comics/whatever, that might appear here.  
******

**Changing Path  
**

**Chapter 2 New Beginning  
**  
The rain fell over London, covering the city in a grey blanket. Ranma Saotome was walking towards his hotel room where he had lived the last week or so. He was glad he had bought the trench coat, it had really helped his stay here in London, where it seemed to rain at least three times a week.  
  
He was currently male the coat, hat and umbrella in his left hand made sure of it. It was kind of ironic, now that he was in a country where it appeared to rain constantly, the water magnet curse seemed to disappear. He hadn't transformed more then twice the entire time.  
  
No freak accidents with water, like being hit by a car/mallet/umbrella/other blunt instrument of pain and flying into a pond/sea/river and other sources of water, just one of this city's usual showers. The water-magnet part of his curse seemed to have disappeared.  
  
The last week Ranma had been around London just sight-seeing and looking for a more permanently stay, and a job.  
  
Sure he had the money from the Takeda account, and it wasn't a little sum, but he didn't want to use it if it wasn't necessary.  
  
He had decided to make it on his own and he needed a job for that, so he was checking the wanted ads after a job.  
  
Problem was he had just turned eighteen, hadn't much off an education and didn't know much besides martial arts, and in a city like London there weren't many dojos.  
  
Oh well, need to find a place to stay this week at least. He could always put in some money on the account after he got a job. So he began to search the ads again but this time after an apartment.  
  
It was still raining and he could see the light of the city. This city was a lot different from Tokyo, but he liked it. Some of the customs were strange but he could live with it.  
  
In Tokyo and Japan in general everyone was so tense, so serious, but here everyone was relaxed without seeming lazy.  
  
Well he could come and think of London as home from now on. His thoughts where interrupted by a yell coming from an alley. He turned towards it and saw five punks standing in a half-circle around an older man in his late sixties-early seventies. One had a knife and was pointing it towards the man.  
  
"Just give us your money old man!" The thug carrying the knife said.  
  
"Yeah, or we will gut you" Said another.  
  
As Ranma saw this he decided to help, he dropped the paper he was holding and ran into the alley. He walked up to the thugs and placed himself between the man and the thugs.  
  
"And what have we got here, a little punk trying to play hero?" The man carrying a knife said with a smirk.  
  
"Well he will be a dead punk once we are finished with him" Said another.  
  
"I wouldn't be so sure if I where you" Ranma said with his trademark cocky grin.  
  
"You little sonuva bitch, you are going down" The leader said.  
  
Two of the punks rushed forward in an attempt to beat the living shit out off him. It was the other way around. Ranma grabbed an outstretched arm and twisted it around making the thug land face first into the hard pavement. He then kicked him hard in the stomach. The man was rolling around on the ground, trying in vain to regain his breath.  
  
The second man was punching towards his head, but he swatted it away with his hand and countered with a vicious kick to the mans head. The man fell backwards, blood and a few teeth flew through the air as he landed on the ground unconscious.  
  
Another thug was trying to sneak up behind him and hit him with an iron pipe. He side stepped the attack and then snatched the pipe out of the hands of the surprised man. He used the pipe as a bat and hit him in the stomach and then a grabbed him by the collar and threw him into a wall knocking him out.  
  
Ranma turned around, the last two thugs where slowly circling him. The one armed with a knife rushed forward in an attempt to stab him. He grabbed the outstretched arm and clenched his hand around the guys' wrist, enough to make the guy drop the knife and then redirected the guys' momentum and made him fly face first into the wall, knocking him out cold.  
  
He turned towards the last guy who took off towards the street. He didn't get there, Ranma picked up a small rock threw it up in the air, caught it and then casually threw it at the head of the man hitting dead on. The man groaned and fell forwards, trying to get up but failing miserably.  
  
Ranma turned towards the man to see if he was okay.  
  
"Are you alright?" Ranma asked as he brushed a nonexistent piece of dust from his shoulder  
  
"Yes, thanks to you lad" The man answered looking around with an interested eye on the total carnage.  
  
"Good, then you should probably call the police" Ranma said and pointed around to the broken and beaten would-be muggers.  
  
He then walked out of the alley before the man had time to say anything. Ranma just picked up his newspaper and then walked away towards his hotel.  
  
The fight had been easy, the thugs weren't even close to hit him. Out of habit he pulled up a pack of cigarettes, putting one into his mouth. He was about to light it when he stopped and then took out the cigarette again. He looked down on it with a frown and then threw it and the packet away into a trashcan.  
  
During his stay here he had finally been able to heal and get his ki- reserves filled. After the fight with Saffron he didn't get time to heal and recharge his ki, and the fights with his rivals didn't make things better, they had left him with constant hurting body and low ki reserves, and that had made him extremely stressed. Now that he finally had his body back to one hundred percent ass-kicking mode he only smoked out of habit.  
  
Which was bad considering that it looked like he wouldn't die at the hands of his rivals after all.  
  
No stupid cancer will do Ranma Saotome in, that's for sure.  
  
He looked through the ads again, there has to be a cheap apartment here somewhere.  
  
------------------------------------------  
  
Q could only watch as the young man made short work with the would-be muggers.  
  
The last man retreated but didn't get far, a perfectly thrown stone hit the man in the head.  
  
The young man turned towards him and looked at him.  
  
"Are you alright?" The man asked and looked around on the unconscious thugs with a frown.  
  
"Yes thanks to you lad." Q said with his thick British accent and looked with interest on the defeated gang.  
  
"Good, then you should probably call the police." The man said and the walked out of the alley.  
  
Q pulled out his cell-phone and dialled a number.  
  
"Miss Money Penny, would you please send me a car to the corner of Granger Street, and please call the police, tell them that a group criminals are waiting to be picked up."  
  
"007 is in the neighbourhood, I will call him at once, sir."  
  
"Thank you Miss Money Penny."  
  
Q walked out of the alley, and stood and waited for 007. A black Jaguar pulled up and the door opened.  
  
Inside he could see the British Secret Service best agent 007 or James Bond as he was more commonly known as.  
  
Q walked up and sat in the passenger seat.  
  
"So Q, what happened? Why did Penny ask me to pick you up?"  
  
"I was enjoying a walk in the park 007, and decided to take a shortcut back to the bureau. Unfourtunely I had a rather nasty encounter with those men over there." He said and pointed to the alley and the unconscious gang.  
  
Bond raised an eyebrow, it looked like the men had gotten quite a beating. He had heard that Q was quite a successful agent in his youth, but that he still was able to fight of a gang of young thieves that he didn't suspect.  
  
A police car pulled up and two officers stepped out and walked over to the unconscious men.  
  
"I was in quite a problem, but then this young man came and took care of the thieves. Quite efficiently I might ad." Q said as he looked out as another police car pulled up and began to take the thugs away.  
  
"And where is this young man now?" Bond asked as he started up the engine of the car.  
  
"He walked away, he asked if I was alright and then left after telling me to call the police."  
  
"Did you get a name?"  
  
"No, the man didn't bother to give me one."  
  
-----------------------------------------  
  
Nabiki listened as one of her many contacts told her the same as all her others. They couldn't find Ranma, neither his boy nor his girl half. She hung up the phone and the rubbed her temples wither fingers, she could feel the beginning of a big headache. She had checked the hospital, police and then the airport, she couldn't find Ranma anywhere. She had called in a lot of favours but came up with nothing.  
  
If Ranma had left the country her chances off finding him was slim to none, especially if she couldn't find to where he left. She suspected that Kasumi knew where Ranma was, but every time she asked she would just avoid the question.  
  
When she had asked Dr Tofu he had said that he couldn't hand out information on a patient, it was an oath he had sworn as a doctor. When she had tried to sneak into his office she had found that his file was gone, no sign that it had ever existed.  
  
The day after that Dr Tofu had called to make her remember that the medical files were restricted information and if he handed it out to her it would be illegal. And that he couldn't give away any personal information regarding his patient.  
  
Even though it had sounded like he just made it clear that he couldn't help her. But she caught the underlying meaning that if she ever tried to steal files again he would report her to the police.  
  
Apparently Ranma had made sure that his file was safe, a move she didn't suspect from the cocky martial artist.  
  
The last person she could think off that could possibly know where Ranma where was Nodoka. She hadn't heard anything from her spy that would watch Nodokas house, but she didn't really have much hope off getting anything useful from there.  
  
It had taken her almost a week to find her house after Ranmas disappearance, and that would have given Ranma enough time to leave. She rubbed her temples again, this was one of those days you shouldn't leave bed.  
  
The telephone rang again, and as she answered she could hear the voice of Yuka, the one watching the Saotome home.  
  
"Sorry boss, nothing unusual here. No sign of Ranma."  
  
She sighed again and then hung up the phone without bothering to reply.  
  
Two weeks without Ranma had been a serious setback for her scheming and money making plans. In almost all her business Ranma played a crucial role in it, one way or another Ranma had managed to make an entire district resolve around him.  
  
The chaos he had brought with him when he arrived had made Nabikis affairs bloom and when he disappeared the affairs went down the drain. The only thing remaining where the high costs off all the fights from the NWC trying to blame Ranmas absence on each other.  
  
Now it was something all Nerima had learned, even tough Ranmas present brought chaos, his absence brought even more.  
  
Nabiki walked into the living room, looking in disgust at Soun and Genma lying sprawled out on the floor sleeping. After Ranmas departure both had begun to drink and wailing that the schools would never be joined.  
  
Nabiki herself didn't care the slightest about the schools, or Ranma for that matter she just wanted her money generator back.  
  
She walked into the kitchen and took an aspirin and a glass of water, she was then heading for the stair and her bedroom.  
  
She was stopped by the sound of the telephone. She turned around and picked it up.  
  
"Tendo dojo Nabiki speaking."  
  
"Good day ms Tendo its Mrs Saotome here"  
  
"Good day auntie, what can I help you with?"  
  
"It's about my sons' absence I need to talk with your father and the rest of my sons... acquaintances.  
  
Nabiki shuddered at the way Mrs Saotome had said that word.  
  
"When do you get here?"  
  
"I will be there in less then an hour." She said and then hung up the phone.  
  
She put the phone down and then walked into the living room again. She surveyed the inhabitants and the walked into the yard, filling a bucket with water from the koi-pond.  
  
A moment later a very drunk panda and a slightly more sober human woke up.  
  
"Father, Mr Saotome, Nodoka called and said she needed to talk with you concerning Ranma."  
  
She left both fathers and walked towards the telephone once again. She was going to call the rest of the NWC and sell the information of the meeting for a high price making up for the last two weeks of loss.  
  
"Auntie Saotome please come in." Nabiki could hear Kasumis voice as she answered the door.  
  
"Thank you dear."  
  
Kasumi entered the living room followed closely by Nodoka. Both Genma and Soun was now relatively sober, sitting at the end of the table.  
  
Everyone was present even Ryoga who they found walking around in the yard. He had been to Dr Tofu and his jaw was healed but still sore.  
  
Everyone was staring at Nodoka intently.  
  
"No-Chan do you know where Ranma is?" Asked Genma after awhile.  
  
"Yes I do and that's the reason I am here."  
  
Naturally Soun misunderstood it all.  
  
"Waaaaaaaaaaaa! The schools will be united at last"  
  
"So No-Chan, where is he?"  
  
Nodoka shifted her gaze towards Genma, eyes filled with anger.  
  
"As I said Ranmas absence is the reason I am here. He will not come back."  
  
An uproar was heard from the table, Ranma wouldn't come back? He was honour- bound to be here.  
  
"Mrs Saotome son-in-law is by Amazon law to be married to Shampoo here." Cologne said diplomatically.  
  
"And as my son told you before he left he won't marry anyone."  
  
"But he must marry a Tendo it was made on the Saotome clans honour" Said Soun.  
  
"And his father has already taken my dowry so he must return and marry me." This time Ukyo butted in.  
  
"Ranma is just an unhonourable dog, to run away from his duty" This time it was Kuno and both Ryoga and Mousse agreed.  
  
"First off all every agreement made by Genma was invalid from the beginning, he wasn't the clan head, I am."  
  
Now everyone turned towards Genma.  
  
"I made the pacts as his father and not as the clan head." Was the lame excuse.  
  
Everyone seemed satisfied with the answer and turned towards Nodoka once again, if it still meant Ranma would be engaged to them they would believe it.  
  
"Second Ranma is no longer a member of the Saotome clan."  
  
"WHAT?!" Came from the table, everyone was looking at Nodoka in shock, had Ranma chosen to become a ronin?  
  
This bit off information made the trio of rivals snicker, their arch-enemy had become a ronin? Oh happy days.  
  
"Ranma is now the clan head of the Takeda clan and as that he will chose who he wants to marry."  
  
Nabiki couldn't believe it, clan head? Ranma?  
  
"But it is a matter of honour." Came Souns voice, they needed Ranma for their retirement.  
  
"And you don't have a valid claim, he is no longer a Saotome."  
  
"But he stole my dowry." This time it was Ukyo who argued.  
  
"I am sorry to hear that and the Saotome clan will compensate for the lost property but Ranma will not marry any of you."  
  
"But he is Shampoos airen by Amazon law."  
  
"But you are in Japan now and here your laws don't apply."  
  
Nabiki didn't like the way this was going, soon they would run out of arguments and then it would become violent.  
  
"Mrs Saotome during his stay here Ranma have worked up a big debt and I may consider it repaid if Ranma returns."  
  
Naturally she wouldn't do it, but it was a good way to find out Ranmas location.  
  
"Are you trying to bribe me Ms Tendo?" Nodoka asked with an innocent voice.  
  
"N...No Mrs Saotome I just want the debt paid."  
  
"Ms Tendo there is no debt understood, after all the blackmailing and scheming you think I will give you even more money?"  
  
"How dare you talk to my daughter that way." This time Soun was angry, when it came to his daughters he would do almost anything to protect them.  
  
"Yeah, how dare you talk to Nabiki that way." Akane was furious, no one talked that way towards her sister.  
  
The rest of the table was looking closely at the spectacle as it played itself out before their eyes.  
  
"I dare because it is the truth. Ranma will not return, he will not marry any of you, he has begun a new life, a life without any of you I might ad."  
  
"HE IS MY FIANCÉE, HE BELONGS TO ME." Akane was now really pissed. She had used Ranma as a stress reliever, she found it was really therapeutic to pound him to the ground and she wouldn't let any one take him from her.  
  
"My child belongs to no one, he has chosen his path and I can only show pride because of the decision he made." Nodokas voice was now cold as ice, how could she mistake Akane for a sweet girl instead of the maniac she was.  
  
"He is Shampoo airen, Amazon laws more important than outsider laws." Shampoo didn't want to lose Ranma, he was her prize.  
  
"All engagements to Ranma are void, as Takeda clan head it is within his power to do that. That is the only reason I am here, to make what Ranma already told you official." She looked around at the table.  
  
Half a second after she said that, everyone began to argue with each other and wasn't paying any attention to Nodoka.  
  
"Now if you would excuse me I will take my leave." Nodoka stood up from the table leaving the arguing group of people behind who didn't even notice her absence.  
  
Nabiki shock her head, this was defiantly not good, if Nodoka didn't want Ranma to marry anyone from Nerima she would have a hard time getting Ranma back.  
  
She sighed, this day had just gone from bad to worse.  
  
---------------  
  
Ranma was standing the top of a mountain, the cold breeze going over his skin. He could see the white clouds dancing over the blue sky.  
  
He felt at peace.  
  
The green grass was fluttering in the wind making it look like a green sea. He could see around for miles from his location on the mountain, a huge valley with a river running through it like a silver serpent.  
  
He felt calm.  
  
He could hear the sound of the wind whispering as it went through the trees. He heard a scream from behind him, he turned around.  
  
Everything was burning, the sky was covered by the black smoke, the flames engulfing the valley, the river drying up. He could feel as tears ran down his cheeks, his anger flaring, a battle aura forming around his body, the tears dried up because of the heat it generated.  
  
His face was filled with anger, hate. Who had done this?  
  
He heard the scream again and turned around, it came from behind him.  
  
On a mountain far away he could see as a pillar of flame shot up in the air, raining down fireballs upon the surrounding lands, burning even more of the valley.  
  
He clinched his hands into fists, his face had a snarl on it.  
  
He heard the scream again, a loud high pitched scream from a girl.  
  
It was a scream in pure terror and anguish, a scream that ripped at his soul.  
  
He began to run, the intense fire scorching his clothes, but he didn't care, didn't feel it, only the voice was important.  
  
Soon the fire subsided, leaving a blackened landscape, all trees gone, small black stumps the only evidence that there once had been a forest here.  
  
He stopped, looking around, the tears once again running down his cheeks. He clenched his hands, nails cutting into his palm, so much that blood began sipper between his fingers.  
  
The sparkling crystal-clear river, had turned pitch black and stale, smelling like something had died in it.  
  
The scream came once again, this time it was sounding almost muted, like the life of the person was slipping away.  
  
Another pillar of flame shoot up in the air, spreading fireballs around him. He could feel the heat as the flames surrounded his body, but he didn't care.  
  
He just ran, as fast as he managed towards the voice, towards the pillar of fire. Somehow he knew that the voice was important, but it eluded him why.  
  
He just ran as fast as possible, sot and grime covering his body after the assault from the flames.  
  
He could hear a rumbling sound, and after a second he identified it as laughter, a sinister evil laugh.  
  
He didn't know why but he became angrier as he heard it.  
  
He continued to run, climbing the mountain with extreme difficulty.  
  
At the top of the mountain he could see a pillar of fire, and from it came the evil laughter.  
  
Thirty or so feet from the pillar of flame there was lying an unmoving body of a girl.  
  
He ran over to her and turned her around, looking at the face of Akane.  
  
Her face was completely white, without any colour and her body was cold, her ki was almost completely gone.  
  
"So mortal... what are you going to do now?" The voice was filled with a cruel, sadistic mirth.  
  
He turned towards the voice. The pillar of flame had changed shape.  
  
Now it displayed a man with pearl white wings, but his body was covered in burning flames. He had the most evil smirk on his face, displaying only hate and blood thirst.  
  
"What have you done?" Ranma said in barely a whisper and clutched her body, stroking her hair softly.  
  
"She will soon die mortal... And nothing you can do can stop it."  
  
"What have you done?" He asked again.  
  
"The power to give her back her life is within the healing waters of the spring behind me... Are you foolish enough to fight a GOD, mortal, to get the water for her?"  
  
Ranma let go of Akanes body, and stood up and faced the being of flame.  
  
He took a martial arts stance, favouring speed and agility before strength. The tears and anger had disappeared, instead replaced by an emotionless mask. "I will take great pleasure in killing you mortal." The winged being said.  
  
Ranma launched an attack towards the Phoenix, not even caring about the intense fire consuming his body.  
  
---------------------------  
  
The alarm sang out its insistent tone and woke up Ranma from his nightmare. He was gasping, his body covered in sweat.  
  
"It... it was just a nightmare." He said and brought up a hand to his forehead, brushing away all the sweat.  
  
He looked at the clock, 05.30.  
  
"Why did I set it so early?" He mumbled to himself as he half fell, half dragged himself from the bed and to the kitchen.  
  
He grumbled to himself as he had a bowl of corn flakes for breakfast, sure they tasted okay, but he missed a Japanese breakfast and one cocked by Kasumi specially.  
  
"Why did I set the clock so early?" He asked himself again, still half asleep.  
  
He tried to remember. He had rented an apartment two weeks ago, paying with the Takeda clan money. He then had continued to look after a job, but because he didn't have a college diploma he didn't get one.  
  
The only thing he really could do was martial arts.  
  
He sat bolt upright, he finally remembered why he set the clock early, he had found an ad in the paper for a hand to hand instructor for a government agency. He had called and asked and the secretary that had answered said he should come by today at 08.00 for an interview.  
  
The building wasn't to far away, only 5 km, a ten minute trip with the subway.  
  
He took a quick shower to wake up and then took out the clothes he would wear, black shoes, a white shirt with black tie, and a beige business suit.  
  
"Might as well do a good first impression." He thought to himself.  
  
He stepped out of the apartment building and walked over to the subway.  
  
Fifteen minutes later he steeped out of the train and headed towards the twenty story building.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"You must be Ranma Saotome." A man in his mid fifities said as he walked over to Ranma and took his hand in greeting.  
  
"Yes, but who are and how do you know my name?" Ranma asked confused. "My name is Avery Williams, and I am the current hand to hand instructor. Please follow me." He said and began to walk towards an elevator.  
  
"And how I know your name, well you are the only one interested in the post as instructor, so it wasn't so hard to guess" They stepped into the elevator and Avery pressed a button.  
  
"But if you're the hand to hand instructor... I thought that the position was empty?" Ranma said as he stood to the left of the man.  
  
"It will be, I am about to retire." Avery said with a smile.  
  
"Okay I understand."  
  
They both fell silent for a while, but Avery resumed the conversation.  
  
"So what do you know about martial arts? What kind of forms have you practiced?"  
  
"I know a many forms of martial arts, including karate, judo, kempo and a few others. As for how good I am, well I have been training regularly since I was six."  
  
"That is quite impressing." The elevator stopped and they walked into a long corridor.  
  
Avery walked down to the left and then walked into an office, Ranma following close behind.  
  
"Have a seat." Avery said and pointed to a chair at a table, as he sat in his own chair.  
  
To the left of Avery an old man in his late sixties, early seventies sat.  
  
------------------------------------  
  
Ranma stood up from the chair. And shock hands with both Avery and the old man. The interview had been over two hours long.  
  
He followed Avery back to the lobby, where he wished him good luck and then walked away. Ranma just nodded and left the building, heading back to his apartment.  
  
-----------------------------------  
  
Q watched as the young man that had helped him with the thugs left the room. The man didn't seem to recognise him.  
  
Q looked down on the papers which Ranma had filled out. They would check his background and make sure he was clean, and if he was Q would make sure the man got the job.  
  
This was his way of repaying the man for his help.  
  
-------------------------------------  
  
Ranma muttered darkly, he had been sitting and reading a book, something that people back in Nerima would have a heart attack if they found out.  
  
The book in question was "Chinese for beginners" He had bought the book after sitting and trying to translate the book with an English/Japanese lexicon.  
  
After translating the first page and making no sense whatsoever, he decided to learn it instead.  
  
And that was his problem, learning Chinese was a serious pain in the ass. He shut the book closed and looked out the window. He would get the answer about the job in a week, so he had the time to learn it.  
  
Right now he really DIDN'T want to read, but he had already trained on the roof, using the Umi-sen-ken to stay invisible. Not only did it help him keep his concentration, it also deepened his ki-reserves.  
  
He had used the technique for over an hour, and together with the extreme workout had made him really tired.  
  
He flexed his shoulders and an audible crack was heard. He didn't really know what to do with so much spare time.  
  
He looked out the window again, the sun was setting and the street lights were turning on. He could see as some people walked into the pub across the street, "The hanged man", it looked really inviting.  
  
He walked down the stairs and across the street, opening the door and stepping in.  
  
The pub wasn't like those he had visited with Genma when he was younger, this one was clean, well lit and the bartender seemed friendly.  
  
"What can I serve ye lad" The man said with a thick Scottish accent.  
  
"A beer." He said simply.  
  
"Coming right up." He said and took a clean glass from a shelf, and filled it with beer from the tap.  
  
He paid the bartender and then walked up to an empty table, picking up a discarded newspaper.  
  
He took a sip and grimaced at the unfamiliar taste, but compared to Akanes cocking this was nothing. So thinking he took another sip and after about half the glass he found it tasted quite good.  
  
He sat reading a newspaper and then a tall bulky man with read hair walked over to him. He was maybe twenty-twenty five and looked quite dangerous.  
  
Ranma being used to getting attacked without reason tensed his muscles and prepared for a counter, but still remained seated reading the newspaper.  
  
"Hey mate, care for a match in dart? We are one person short" the man said and pointed to a corner where four others where standing and throwing darts at a dartboard.  
  
He laid the newspaper on the table, quickly drank up his beer and then turned towards the man.  
  
"Why not, would be a good end to the day." He said with his trademark cocky smirk.  
  
-------------------------------  
  
Ranma walked into the pub, looking at the clock on the far wall. "I am fifteen minutes early, might as well order a beer." He though and walked up to the bartender.  
  
The bartender had already begun to fill a glass of beer as soon as he saw Ranma enter.  
  
During the last two months Ranma always came here at eight O'clock in the evening to have a beer and play a game of dart with his friends.  
  
He sat at the table at the far corner, thinking about his work. He had trained different groups of people in martial arts from nine O'clock to three O'clock. The people had been everything from police officers, military, to the secret intelligence, and the top seemed satisfied with his work.  
  
He was grateful for the fact that the people he trained already had some experience fighting unarmed, he only had to polish up their skill a little.  
  
But one thing he didn't suspect with this work was the amount of paperwork that needed to be filled out. At least they paid well.  
  
The first time he opened his pay check he almost fainted, the money would easily cover the expenses he had had during his stay here.  
  
He just took a sip on his beer, he didn't complain about the extra money though.  
  
After the work he usually spent an hour or so trying to learn Chinese, which he still thought as a serious pain in the ass.  
  
----------------------------------------  
  
He read the first page of the book Happosai had given him and his left eye twitched violently, he knew that he should stop there, but his curiosity got the better of him.  
  
He flipped the page and it wasn't a bit better then the first. It continued like this for another forty pages, the twitch in his eyes became more and more violent.  
  
"Figures that the first forty pages in the book would be on pleasure and sexual pressure points, some things just never change" He thought and sighed.  
  
----------------------------------------------------- Ranma was sitting in the bar, it was Saturday evening, and the rest of his dart friends had already left. He was going to drink his beer and then hit the sack. He knew when to stop, three beers where absolute maximum.  
  
He heard the door open but didn't pay it any attention, until he could hear a couple of voices say.  
  
"Hey there girl, wanna go and have some fun?"  
  
"Yeah, you wanna be with a real man?"  
  
It was Samuel, the local drunk and, and his gang, and they were harassing a young girl.  
  
"N... no thanks." The gang didn't look like they cared, and Samuel took her wrist and began to drag her towards the door  
  
Both Ranma and McTavish, the bartender, saw this and they both began to move towards the gang.  
  
"Let her go Samuel." Ranma said, anger was evident in his voice, and he was backed up by McTavish.  
  
The gang locked eyes with Ranma, and Samuel let go of the girl.  
  
"Don't worry Ranma, we didn't mean no harm, honest." He said a little fearful.  
  
Neither MvTavish nor Ranma liked when there was trouble in the pub, and during a wild fight a couple of weeks ago Ranma had intervened and stopped it quite brutally.  
  
He had earned the respect from numerous guests, and the fear from many trouble makers.  
  
Samuel and his gang ran out the door, they didn't want a fight with a guy that could turn eight guys into dog food.  
  
Ranma muttered darkly and walked back to his table, being thanked by the bartender for his help. He picked up his newspaper and continued to read it.  
  
The girl still stood up and looked around the bar, looking a little lost. She then gazed at Ranma and it looked like she debated with herself on what to do. She then walked slowly over to the table, and then sat down.  
  
"Thanks for the help." She said and looked shyly down at the table.  
  
"No problems, glad I could help you." He said casually.  
  
Ranma folded the paper and placed it on the table, looking at the girl.  
  
She was maybe twenty, with strawberry blond hair at shoulder length. She was maybe a little taller than his girl form, with an hour glass figure that would put his girl form to shame. The clothes she was wearing was a tight dark red top and black skirt. She had the most beautiful face he had ever seen, and Ranma noticed a second later, that she had the most intriguing crimson eyes ever.  
  
Ranma stood up from the table.  
  
"Are you leaving?" She asked a little disappointed.  
  
"No, I will just order something, do you want anything?" He said and looked into her eyes.  
  
"Y... yes a coffee thanks." She said shyly.  
  
Ranma only nodded and walked over to the bar. Half a minute latter he returned with two cups of coffee. One he placed in front of the girl and the other in front of himself.  
  
He took a sip from his coffee, it was still quite hot. The girl was looking down at the table into her cup. She seemed lost, nervous, sad, and a little scared.  
  
"So what are you doing here, I have never seen you here before." He said in an attempt to lighten the mood.  
  
"I... I just needed some time think about things you know. I had had a stressful day and needed time relax."  
  
"You don't seem to enjoy it." He said and took another sip  
  
"Well I.... it's hard to explain. Let's just say I find it hard to have fun." She said with a sigh.  
  
Ranma saw as his attempt went down the drain, the girl was looking even sadder, and Ranma being Ranma couldn't stand see a girl sad.  
  
"Well then the night is still young, want to go to and do something." He said with his killer smile that would make every girl swoon.  
  
"Su...sure why not." She said, but this time she had a blush on her cheeks.  
  
Ranmas smile became wider, and he took the girls wrist and escorted the girl out of the pub, to enjoy London's night life.  
  
**Authors Notes  
**  
**Q:** Grandmaster to much?  
  
**A:** Ranma fought and defeated a god, if that doesn't make him a grandmaster nothing will.  
  
**Q:** Which James Bond?  
  
**A:** I think it will be Pierce, he looks a lot like Ranma.  
  
From the beginning I didn't plan on writing a James Bond crossover, but when I read the reviews I thought why not. The idea was to make Ranmas father British, and the first name I came up with was James, it wasn't meant to be James Bond.  
  
James Bond will NOT be the primary crossover, so you know.


	3. Discoveries

  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own it, I just write it.  
  
Changing Path  
  
Chapter 3 Discoveries  
  
"Not human" She said as she aimed at the hunching humanoid shape moving towards her. The skin of the creature was sickly pale, the face had lost it last vestige of humanity. The only sign that it once had been a human was the tattered remains of a yellow blouse and green skirt.  
  
Her hands were shacking, and as the creature took a step forward she took a step backwards. The creature tilted its head, showing pale watery eyes, no mind our soul was present behind does eyes.  
  
"Not human" She whispered again, twin trail of tears falling from her blue eyes and down her cheeks.  
  
She was scared beyond belief, her entire body was shacking. She couldn't aim properly with her weapon.  
  
The creature took a step towards her, a viscous and hungry snarl on what remained of its face. She took a step backwards, but her foot got caught in a root and she fell down to the cold forest ground.  
  
The creature slowly limped towards her, hissing as it craved the flesh of the living.  
  
She tried to move away from the monster, a terrified look on her face. When the creature was two metres from her, it lifted its head to the sky and hissed viciously.  
  
Out of its chest an arm was sticking out. The thing exploded in a cloud of dust and when it settled down she could see a tall form standing in front of her.  
  
It was a man in red coat and wide brim hat, a pair of yellow shades was covering his eyes. The man had pale skin, almost as pale as the creatures.  
  
He had an evil smirk on his face, showing his elongated canines  
  
A cold shill went up her spine and she shivered. The man was dangerous, she just knew it. Victoria's instincts went into overdrive and told her to run like hell, but she couldn't she was too scared.  
  
"A beautiful night isn't it?" The man said, his voice sounding amused, but still carrying a cold shill of death.  
  
She shivered at the voice, barely able to stand up and run away. She needed to get away from him. Her mind was in turmoil, her squad was dead, killed by those things. Then later her dead squad had turned into those things.  
  
She had run, running away from those things, far away. Through teary eyes she could see a building appear in front of her.  
  
As she whipped the tears from her eyes she could see that it was a church. It was old and made of wood, and was in dire need of restoration. Some of the windows were broken, one of the doors was lying on the ground next to the stairs.  
  
She heard something rustle behind her. She turned around, pistol in her hand, but she was still shacking so she wouldn't be able to get a proper shoot. She walked backwards, scanning the area for any sign of those creatures from hell. She felt her boot hit something and she looked back at what she had hit.  
  
It was the first step of the stone stair leading into the church. She looked around and hesitantly walked up to the door. Ceres looked inside but couldn't see anyone.  
  
She could hear something from behind her again, and yet she turned around and found nothing in the dark night.  
  
She could hear some dry leaves crunch under her boot as she stepped back into the church. She sighed in relief and lowered her weapon as she turned around. In the moon light that entered the windows, she could se a man wearing a priests robe. He was standing in front of the altar.  
  
He was standing with his back towards her.  
  
She raised her weapon to make sure he wasn't a treat.  
  
"wh... who are you?" She asked and tried to hide the fear in her voice.  
  
The man turned around and looked straight at her, a smile across his lips. He held a bible in his hands, a cross was around his neck. The moonlight reflected on his glasses, making it impossible to see his eyes.  
  
Now that she could see his face she knew who he was, the stained glass in the windows covering him crimson light.  
  
"You're the one responsible for all lost people." She said and aimed her gun at the smiling priest.  
  
"I merely take care of the lost souls that have strayed from god's path. Are you lost, child? The priest said in a calm voice, still smiling.  
  
"What have you done with them?" She asked, the gun still aimed at the priest's chest.  
  
"I have retrieved the lost sheep into the fold, making sure they will see god the saviours' glory." He said and his smile became broader.  
  
"Wha... how? Why?" She asked, the fear once again ripping at her heart.  
  
"Oh, I simply drank their life giving blood, but their blood was weak, only making them usable as mindless ghouls. You, on the other hand child..." He made gesture with his hand and Ceres felt as darkness fell over her mind, her arms falling limply to her side, the gun in her hand falling to the floor with a clatter.  
  
She could feel as she was dragged across the floor by invisible hands and she was soon in the embrace of the man.  
  
"You're blood is too valuable, it would be a waste to turn you into a mindless ghoul. Therefore you will be blessed with the gift of immortality child." He whispered into her ear.  
  
She heard what he said, but didn't understand it in the haze her mind was in. She could feel as he licked along her neck and she shuddered in fear, but still unable to move.  
  
In the haze of her mind she could see as the man she had meet earlier walked in through the doors. He said something but she couldn't hear. A smirk was playing on the mans lips.  
  
She could hear the priest say something, but she couldn't understand, her mind was in darkness.  
  
The man began to walk forward, heading straight towards the priest and her.  
  
The priest laughed and then said something. From the rows of benches a huge amount of those creatures appeared. Some was wearing the clothes that identified them as members of D-11, members of her unit.  
  
She could see as the creatures fired the rifles they were carrying, tearing apart the man in seconds.  
  
The tears reappeared, falling unnoticed to the floor.  
  
The mans body began to turn into black liquid, and soon reformed itself again. The man pulled out a gun from his coat and then began to successfully decimate the creatures. When the last of the creature fell and their bodies turned to ash, the man shifted his gaze upon the pair.  
  
The priest lifted Ceres, and held her before him like a shield. His mouth only millimetres from her throat.  
  
"You are a pawn of the humans, and as that you can't kill this girl. What are you going to do now traitor?"  
  
The man raised his gun and aimed it at Ceres chest. The haze from her mind lifted, but she still couldn't move.  
  
"Police-girl I am going to shoot through you're chest and into the heart of the FREAK. This is you're choice, either you die or you come with me." The man said indifferently.  
  
She was confused, but how... She didn't want to die here.  
  
"I will come with you." She said in a whisper and then closed her eyes.  
  
She could hear a loud bang as the mans gun fired, and she could feel as it slammed into her supposedly bullet-proof vest, went through her left chest and out of her back.  
  
She fell to the floor without being able to move. She could hear a shriek behind her and a thud as something hit the floor.  
  
She didn't care though, her body didn't obey any of her commands, she was going numb, her body feeling incredibly cold. Her vision began to fade and the last thing she saw before succumbing to darkness was a smirking face and a pair of crimson eyes.  
  
----------------------------------  
  
Ceres awoke sobbing, trying in to stop the tears that flowed down her cheeks. She hugged her pillow for dear life, tears flowing and drying on the soft material.  
  
She had had the same nightmare about the night in Cheedar ever since she was turned. Every night she had to go through the same thing. The tears began to fade, and she whipped her eyes and tried to regain her composure. She turned around so that she was lying on her back, looking up at the red silk draping of her coffin lid.  
  
Tears once again threatened to appear, but she fought them down. She clenched her fists, she had to remain strong. So thinking she fumbled with the lid of her coffin and finally managed to find the button to open it.  
  
The room was dark, but thanks to her vampire eye-sight she could easily see the contours of the room, the dresser to the left of the door, the door to the small bathroom, two chairs standing around a table, and lying on the table was bucket filled with ice and the pack of medical blood.  
  
She looked on the blood and fearfully walked towards the pack. Next to the bucket were a bowl and a spoon. She picked up the pack and opened it, pouring the red liquid into the bowl, and swirling the spoon in it. She looked in disgust at the bowl of blood. She had drunken blood during the Incognito incident, but that was just because she couldn't afford not to do it.  
  
She knew she was a vampire and needed the blood to remain strong, but she couldn't drink it, even if it was from a medical pack, she just couldn't. She closed her eyes and tried to bring the bowl up to her lips, a couple of centimetres from her lips she stopped and put it back down on the table.  
  
She opened her eyes and looked down on the bowl, she shock her head and then walked into the bathroom and flushed it down the toilet.  
  
"Still to stubborn to drink blood Police-Girl? You will have to do it soon." She could hear her master's voice in her head. He was mocking her.  
  
The far off wall seemed to turn into liquid darkness, and out stepped her master. He had his usual grin on his face.  
  
"I just can't, I just can't bring me to do it, master." She said as she walked back to her coffin and sat down.  
  
"Are you so weak you can't even drink the blood that is given to you freely? How disappointing."  
  
That made her angry, he had hit a nerve, she didn't like being called weak.  
  
"Leave me alone!" She yelled angry. Half a second later she understood her mistake, she had yelled at her master, one of the few people she had some sort of trust for.  
  
"Very well Victoria, but remember if you don't drink then you will be of no use to me." His voice was cold, almost angry. His smirk was gone replaced by an ice-cold mask.  
  
Victoria flinched at the way he talked to her, he never used her name unless he was serious.  
  
His form turned to liquid darkness, disappearing back onto the wall.  
  
"Don't forget that Police-Girl" The mocking tone was back.  
  
She just sat back down on the coffin, head in her hands. She was just a small step from breaking down and crying.  
  
The two last months had been rough on Ceres Victoria, being turned into a vampire, being recruited into Hellsing, the fight with Incognito, it was just too much. Not a single glimpse of hope, nothing that really made her want to go on.  
  
Would this be her life, fighting ghouls during the night and being locked up in her coffin during the day? Nothing else, no hope for peace or love? Then Ceres hoped she would die soon.  
  
Her hands where shacking, she had seen as her team mates from the D-11 was killed in Cheedar forest, and had seen the men and women from Hellsing fight and die regularly. She just couldn't take it anymore.  
  
Even if she was a vampire she wasn't a cold-hearted killer, she still had feelings.  
  
She needed some time to calm down and the dark, cold stone room wasn't the place. She quickly changed into a clean pair of clothes and headed out.  
  
The lower levels of the mansion were empty, the only residence was Victoria's and her master, the rest of the rooms were storages.  
  
The damp air in the lower levels usually made the light malfunction, but thanks to her vampire senses she could see as clear as the day.  
  
The first place she walked too was the kitchen, she maybe didn't need human food anymore but she still enjoyed the smell. She sat at one of the tables and just stared out at the cloudless night. She just wanted some peace, just some time away from the constant fighting. Everyone had a pillar of sanity in the sea of madness.  
  
She had her left elbow on the table supporting her head, and as she looked out of the window she sighed.  
  
"Everyone but me." She thought sadly.  
  
She looked back from the window at the kitchen personnel, and could see they were staring at her. They turned back to what they were doing, embarrassed that they were caught while looking at the vampire. Victoria knew that they were afraid of her and she decided to leave.  
  
Walking outside she proceeded to the shooting-range. When she entered she could see that all the eyes were on her. She nervously walked over to the weapon storage and picked up a normal pistol, when she walked back she could see that everyone had left in a hurry.  
  
Even though it always happened, she still almost fell down crying. She hated that everyone was scared and tried everything to avoid her. She felt so alienated from the rest of Hellsing.  
  
So deep it thought was she that she didn't even notice that she had emptied the clip. She frowned and put the weapon back in the storage. This wasn't the thing to clear her mind.  
  
She walked back into the mansion, just walking through it without a goal.  
  
"Miss Victoria" She could hear the voice of Walter say from behind her.  
  
"Yes?" She said and turned around.  
  
"Sir Hellsing wishes to speak with you." He said.  
  
Victoria nodded and began to climb the stairs to Sir Hellsings office, Walter walking next to her. In his hands he had a silver-tray with tea and scones.  
  
She opened the massive door to Sir Hellsings office.  
  
Sir Integra Fairbrooks Wingates van Hellsing, the leader of Hellsing institution, was sitting behind her massive oak desk and smoking one of her expensive cigars. She had an cold look on her face.  
  
She was going through another report, flipping the pages at a fast tempo.  
  
Walter placed the tray on the desk, and left with a bow.  
  
"Sir?" Victoria asked as she stood before the desk.  
  
Integra shifted her eyes from the report to the blonde vampire. Tired crimson orbs meting ice cold blue ones. Ceres shivered a little  
  
"Victoria, have a seat." Integra said as she put the report in her desk. Her tone made it clear it was a command and not a wish.  
  
She did as she was told and took a seat in the black leather chair in front of the desk. Victoria wondered why she had been called to her office.  
  
"Victoria what is it that's bothering you." Integra said her voice was as emotionless as ever.  
  
"Nothing." She said and looked down at her feet.  
  
"Well, then please explain to me why your superior officers say you are becoming more of a burden then asset?" She said to the young vampire, her voice having a little bit of irritation in it.  
  
She kept quiet and didn't answer the question.  
  
"Well?" She asked again, this time with a little more sharp in her voice.  
  
Once again she was quiet, her head looking down on the floor so as not to show Integra the tears that was threatening to come forth. Her hand where holding the hem of her skirt tightly, wrinkling the material.  
  
"You're tired of the fighting aren't you?" She said without a hint of emotion in her voice.  
  
"Yes." She said in barely a whisper.  
  
"You are of no use to Hellsing if you cant fight, and there isn't any reports about freak-attacks so you can take the night off."  
  
"Sir?" She asked confused.  
  
"That's an order Ceres." Integra said as she picked up the report and slowly began to read it again. She puffed absentmindedly on her cigar. After a while she looked back on Ceres again.  
  
"Is it something you want?" She asked with a stern voice.  
  
"Nothing sir" Seras said as she stood up and left the room.  
  
--------------------------------------------  
  
"Well then the night is still young, want to go and do something?" The man said with a roguish smile, and she couldn't do anything but blush.  
  
"Su...sure why not." She said, this time there was shyness in her voice.  
  
He stood up from his seat and bowed and offered his arm as a true gentleman, but the smile showed her he was joking.  
  
She grabbed his arm and let him escort her, for the first time in a long while a genuine smile played across her lips, she couldn't do anything else at the mans attics.  
  
"By the way what is your name?" She asked, not wanting to walk with a complete stranger.  
  
"Ranma Saotome, what is yours?" He asked in return.  
  
"Ceres Victoria." She answered.  
  
-----------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Ranma awoke with a groan, the alarm had gone off, so he groggily tried to reach it to turn it off. Still being used to sleep on a futon he fell out of the bed and hit the floor with a loud thud.  
  
With his face planted into the floor he cursed the alarm, its creator and his mother, while trying to regain his senses.  
  
He looked at the alarm and his rational-mind tried to tell himself that it hadn't done anything bad, but his stomach argued otherwise, it had waked him up from a food filled dream.  
  
In the end his stomach won the argument and the offending clock went flying through the room, hit the wall and then fell into a trashcan.  
  
His stomach growled in victory and then decided it wanted real food. Ranma didn't have the willpower to argue with the true master of his body so he obliged and half walked/dragged himself into the kitchen.  
  
He walked over to the toaster and stared at it.  
  
After five minutes of staring his rational-mind butted in and told him that it wouldn't just appear toast in it, he had to do it himself.  
  
His stomach answered in affirmative and commanded him to get toast. He walked over to the fridge and placed two pieces of bread in the toast.  
  
After another five minutes his rational-mind told him to put the plug in. His stomach agreed and soon he was finally able to get some breakfast.  
  
He looked at the watch on the far wall and told him it was time to get to work.  
  
He took a quick shower and then was in his usual clothes, black shoes, brown suit with blue tie. He grabbed the books and then was off towards his work.  
  
The top had found out that he tried to learn Chinese and had asked him if he wanted lessons. It turned out that it wasn't just martial arts they taught, it was everything from math to languages, so he decided to see if he could get a collage diploma.  
  
The top had said it wouldn't be a problem and so he began to go to classes.  
  
After he was done with the martial arts classes he had an hour language, followed by math, physics/chemistry/biology, and then computer science.  
  
He was average to good in most of the areas, the only one he had problems with was the computer classes. The first time he had tried to use the computers he had almost thrown it out the window in frustration.  
  
The one thing he had excelled in was language, he had learned to speak Chinese fluently in less then a month, but his accent was horrible his teachers told him. The only drawback with learning Chinese so fast was that he needed to choose an additional class to fill the gap.  
  
It was between another language, or further study in computer skills. For him it wasn't a hard choice, he now had Russian as fourth language.  
  
He had hated to learn Chinese and he hated to learn Russian even more, but it was still better then computers.  
  
The teachers wasn't happy about his choice, the first time he had tried to say "How is the weather?" he had managed to insult the teacher, his mother, father and younger sister.  
  
He would be back about eight this evening, so he should have enough time to meet Victoria later.  
  
It was a little over two months since he had meet her, and he found out he enjoyed her company. They always meet in the evenings, his schedule didn't allow anything else. Fortunately she understood and told him she also was busy during the day because of her work.  
  
He grumbled as he made his way out of the subway, how he hated the crowd in the morning.  
  
He walked quickly and showed his ID-badge to the guard, and was soon on his way to the fourteenth floor.  
  
-----------------------------------------------------------  
  
He threw the bag of books into the corner of the room, he may have started a new life but school was still one of those things he rather been without.  
  
Ranma threw his coat on a chair with a groan and then changed into a white training gi. He opened the window and used the umi-sen-ken to hide his aura and blend into the background.  
  
He was soon hoping around the roofs, doing complicated katas and modifying them as he did them.  
  
He used the umi-sen-ken for two purposes, to stay invisible from the people on the street and to build up his ki reserves. He could easily use the technique for over an hour.  
  
He made a final back-flip across the street and landed silently on his roof, making sure that no one heard him.  
  
He dropped down to his open window and entered his apartment, taking a quick shower before meeting up with Victoria at the pub.  
  
--------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Victoria walked through Hellsing mansion with a bounce, whistling a happy tune. There wasn't any reported freak attacks, so she had gotten the day... night off and decided to meet with Ranma.  
  
When she was with Ranma it felt like she was far away from Hellsing, vampires and ghouls, when she was with him it was like all her problems disappeared.  
  
With him she was Ceres Victoria the young woman, not Ceres Victoria the vampire. She liked him a lot, especially his carefree nature and roguish smile...  
  
As she though about that she got a far away look in her eyes, and the Hellsing personnel that paid more attention could see a demure blush on her cheeks.  
  
They were a bit freaked out, if a vampire looked happy it was bad news. When Alucard was happy you better run for nearest bomb-shelter or risk being maimed, killed or worse, so why should it be different with the other one? She was probably thinking of exotic ways of killing people in painful ways.  
  
...Then there was the way he treated her, like a gentleman but without being ridiculous, and the fact he was good-looking wasn't a minus either...  
  
When her face then broke out into a broad smile, and they could see one of her fangs they decided that leaving the better part of valour behind and run for their lives would be a good idea.  
  
If the Hellsing personnel had been able to read the vampires mind the reaction would have been quite different.  
  
The males would have probably fainted because of a major nosebleed, and the women's faces would have turned atomic rouge.  
  
Ceres didn't care about the looks she received from the retreating Hellsing personnel, she was too deep in her own little world to notice.  
  
She was brought out of her day dream as she walked into some ones back and fell backwards on her butt.  
  
"Ouch! Sorry" She said as she stood up and dusted off her skirt, she didn't want to turn up with dirty clothes to her meting with Ranma. Making sure that there wasn't any dust or any wrinkles she then looked at the person she bumped into.  
  
Standing before her was Integra Hellsing, with a rather annoyed look on her face. Seras gulped and then took a step back, she really didn't want to piss Integra off.  
  
"Miss Victoria care to explain why you aren't paying attention?" She said in a rather dangerous voice.  
  
"Umm... sorry?" She said in attempt to calm down Integra, but it apparently wasn't working.  
  
Integra looked her up and down and then raised an eyebrow. The annoyed look was replaced by one of mild curiosity, but the irritation was still present.  
  
"And why aren't you in your uniform? Any special reason you aren't following dress code regulation?" She asked the vampire rather annoyed. She didn't like it when the regulation was broken.  
  
Seras fidgeted with her fingers and looked down on the floor. Should she tell Integra that she met a normal human regularly, and what if she told Alucard? He would probably go about and destroy the relationship with her only friend.  
  
"Nothing, absolutely nothing." She said and smiled nervously.  
  
"Nothing?" Integra asked unconvinced at the nervous Ceres.  
  
"Nothing! I am, umm... I am going to party, yeah that's it. I am going to a party." Ceres said and nodded fast.  
  
Integra nodded and then walked away, muttering something about vampires and bad liars. She had been on her way to get a new cigar, the box in her office was empty.  
  
Ceres sighed in relief and then quickly walked out of the mansion, making sure not to bump into any more people on her way.  
  
Soon she was whistling again.  
  
--------------------------------------------------------  
  
Integra watched as Ceres left the mansion grounds. She frowned a little, anyone could tell Ceres was hiding something, or tried to hide something.  
  
Most of Hellsing didn't care what the vampires did as long as they didn't bother them but Integra was a little curious what Ceres was doing, she wanted to keep an eye on the Alucards fledgling so she didn't get into trouble. If Ceres got into trouble it would in the end be Hellsing that got the blame and Integra didn't want that.  
  
During the last two months Ceres had been quite happy and during the missions she had been calm and collected, so whatever she did seemed to make her happy. She knew that whatever made a vampire happy was bad for humans, just take Alucard and his hobby of blowing things and/or people up for fun. She also knew that Ceres wasn't really acting as vampires should.  
  
In the end Integra's curiosity got the better off her and she decided to send out someone to check what the damn vampire was doing. She briefly considered Alucard but he would probably just walk in and demand that Ceres tell him what she was doing.  
  
She quickly discarded Pip, she needed someone that could blend in with the surroundings.  
  
Walter walked in carrying a silver tray with the usual tea and biscuits. She looked at Walter closely and then smiled.  
  
"Perfect." She said.  
  
Walter just looked at her with a confusion written over his face.  
  
--------------------------------------------  
  
Walter was following Ceres as she walked down one of the many streets in London, he felt a little stupid tracing one of their own men but Integra had told him she wanted to find out if Ceres made something stupid, and he couldn't argue with Integra.  
  
He could see as she entered a small pub "The hanged man" and he decided to follow.  
  
Stepping in he took a seat so he could se Ceres out of the corner of his eye. She ordered something, probably coffee or tea and then took a seat at a one of the tables, three tables from him.  
  
She just sat and sipped on her tea, and looked on the door. Two minutes later a man wearing a grey coat walked through the door and looked around the pub. He spotted Victoria and walked over.  
  
"Good evening Victoria, sorry I'm late, I had some work to do." The man said, and when he removed his coat Walter could see he was of Asian descendant, but it didn't notice in his voice, in fact his accent was nonexistent. Walter couldn't tell if he was British, American or had it as second language.  
  
"Don't worry, I just arrived." Victoria said with a smile.  
  
They continued their conversation, but Walter couldn't gain any information from the talk. Walter looked closely on Ceres and could see she was smiling a happy, genuine smile. She seemed to be extremely relaxed, totally different from how she usually was.  
  
They both stood up and left the pub, the man holding the door open for Ceres. They walked slowly down the street. Walter immediately noticed something about the man, he walked with a grace only an experienced fighter would have.  
  
Walter decided to ask the bartender about Ceres and the unknown man. He ordered a whisky and then pointed at the table where the two had been sitting.  
  
"Who was that young man sitting at the table together with the young lady?" Walter asked as he sipped at his whiskey.  
  
The bartender looked at the empty table and then at Walter.  
  
"Ya mean Ranma."  
  
"Ranma? Hmm... the name sounds familiar if I don't remember wrongly a old friend of mine had a boy named Ranma, but my memory isn't the best nowadays. Can you tell me more about him?" Walter said in an attempt to get more information from the man.  
  
"He is a good lad the boy, polite, honest and open. Has been a guest her at my pub for four months. The boy is quite helpful and he doesn't like trouble, stopped a fight awhile back and then helped clean up the mess."  
  
The bartender made a pause in his talk to serve a customer. He then walked back to Walter  
  
"Where were we?" He asked as he returned.  
  
"Something about a fight I think." Walter said.  
  
"Yes, well he took stopped a couple of men that tried to start a brawl, took them down without breaking a sweat, used some kind of fancy kung-fu, but it worked."  
  
The bartender looked up at Walter.  
  
"He plays dart with a couple of other guests here regularly and usually meet with the girl, Victoria I think her name is, for a couple of weeks now. His last name is Saotome if that helps you anything."  
  
"Saotome? hmm... No I am quite sure that I don't know anyone by that name, my old friend had Johnson as last name, it was a mistake from my side." Walter said and played the forgetful old man. He finished his whiskey and thanked the bartender for his help.  
  
He quickly followed the way he had seen Victoria take and caught up with them shortly after that.  
  
The rest of the evening he followed them around, going from club to club and then finally they began to walk back to the pub they began from.  
  
------------------------------------------------  
  
They had left the last club and decided that it was time to go home. She had really enjoyed the night, and was beginning to get tired.  
  
She had a tight hold on Ranmas left arm and without thinking was leaning her head against his shoulder. She shivered a little and, both from the cold and from the contact to Ranma.  
  
Ranma stopped and looked down on her. She blushed a little when Ranma took his coat and placed it over her shoulder.  
  
"Thanks" She said and pulled the coat tightly around her body, making sure it sheltered her from the cold.  
  
"No problems" He said with a shrug.  
  
She leaned close to his body again and was surprised as Ranma laid his left arm around her shoulders. She just leaned even closer and sighed happily.  
  
------------------------------------------------------------  
  
M walked through the different halls of the British Secret Service main office. Next to her on her left an older lady listened closely to what she was saying. Next to her on her right her best agent James Bond a.k.a. 007 was walking.  
  
"Your Majesty I don't want to be rude but it would be in England's best interest. What happened during that night?" M asked as she tried to gain any form of information from the woman.  
  
"Something that must be kept a secret even from you M. I hardly believe you are prepared for it." The Queen of England said.  
  
"Your Majesty how will we be able to counter such a threat if we don't know what it is?" M said and tried to reason with her.  
  
"Do not worry, it is being dealt with by capable hands." She said.  
  
M sighed.  
  
"I lost thirty of my best agents that night, including two 00s, it will take considerable time to get the agency back in working order. We are lacking experienced people and I have had to call in retired agents and relocate many instructors to active duty, and we aren't even near on filling the gaps. And we still don't have a single trail on what happened during the attack on London tower, you your Majesty is the only person who was there and still is alive."  
  
"I can only show my deepest respect for the people that died, but I must insist that you keep out of the incident. It is for your best and as I already said, it is being dealt with by capable hands." She said.  
  
M opened her mouth to try and convince her otherwise but then closed it again. Her Majesty seemed quite determined in this matter and she thought it was best not to argue any further.  
  
"I understand your Majesty." she finally said.  
  
"Well then M, lets continue the tour shall we." She said.  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"This is the hand to hand training facility, the instructor is a young man quite skilled in martial arts as you can see." M said and pointed to the area where the students and trainer where standing. The training area was huge, a hundred meter long hall with seats for hundreds of people.  
  
Thirty or so students were standing in a row, each holding a long staff about six feet in length. Everyone was wearing a simple white gi, and they where keenly listening to the instructor.  
  
In front of them a single man in white gi with black belt was standing, twirling a staff in his right hand.  
  
"You have progressed a far way in martial arts, and now I will begin to teach how to incorporate weapons when fighting in melee-combat. We will begin with the staff for two reasons. First it is relatively easy to use when you compare with other weapons, a relatively inexperienced fighter can become quite dangerous with a staff in his hands. And two, the fact that a staff is easily made or found, a broom, mop, stick or and a multitude of other sources can quickly become a dangerous weapon that your opponents don't suspect."  
  
He quickly made sure he had the students focus. And then began a slow kata so the others could follow.  
  
A low left strike, high right strike, quick stab, slash towards left of the neck, sweep against the feet of the opponent, block, and then holding the staff vertically with both hands in front of him in a neutral stance.  
  
He let the students do the kata for a couple of minutes, walking between them to make sure they were doing it right. He corrected some and after making sure they could it he split them into pairs.  
  
"Now you will do the same kata against your partner. Do it slowly and try to both block and attack. After awhile it will come naturally. Begin!" He said and began to survey the trainees, giving advice and commenting on good work.  
  
So it continued, the instructor going through a couple of different katas and then made sure they could the ones he had already taught.  
  
"That was all for today, hit the showers." The instructor said as he clapped his hands to make gain the students attention.  
  
"I would like to talk with the instructor if you wouldn't mind." The Queen said as she made a gesture towards the man. The reason of her visit was to inspect the training facilities and see how they worked, and talking with the instructor usually gave her some good insights.  
  
They walked down a couple of stairs so that they were on the same level and then walked over to the instructor.  
  
He was currently gathering up all the staffs into a neat pile and was about to leave when he was done, when he heard a voice from behind him.  
  
He looked up and spotted M walking towards him with a man in his late thirties to early forties and an old lady in her late fifties-early sixties. The three where accompanied by two people in black suites and shades.  
  
M was about to introduce Ranma to the Queen when something unsuspected happened. Something that made her quite shocked. Ranma threw himself and tackled the Queen to the floor. At the same time 007 threw himself too the floor and brought up his pistol.  
  
Ranma only got a short glimpse before he reacted and did three things at once.  
  
First: He tackled the lady to the floor with his shoulder as fast as he could.  
  
Second: He hooked his foot around the knee of M and took her down to the floor with him.  
  
Third: He threw the staff he was holding as hard as he could towards the six people in white lab-coats and carrying rifles pointed at them.  
  
Well, it was four things if you count the loud "Bloody Hell!" leaving his mouth.  
  
Half a second after he began to move he could hear multiply shoots being fired, ant the wood floor behind him and the lady turned into splinters. He could hear the bullets hit and penetrate the small row of benches he had pushed the lady behind, spraying them with a hail of wood splinters.  
  
He covered the lady as the bullets hit the floor around them, she was holding onto him like her life depended on it. And it did. He managed to drag the lady to a place where they where protected by a layer of concrete, but the bullets still flew over their heads with only decimetres to spare.  
  
James had been able to drag M into cover, but if the young man hadn't brought M down to the floor she would have had resembled red Switz-cheese. He had his pistol out and was shooting back on the people.  
  
The two guards hadn't been so lucky, one had gotten hit on his leg and arm but he had been able to drag himself into cover behind a concrete pillar.  
  
The other had gotten hit in the chest and was lying on his back on the floor and was trying to regain his breath. The bullets were carving holes around him sending up geysers of splintered wood, but miraculously no one hit the wounded man.  
  
Ranma took a deep breath and then threw himself and grabbed the neck of the man. Ranma dragged the man behind the cover of the concrete, bullets ripping apart the floor were the man had been only moments before.  
  
James pulled the trigger and could see as one of the men dropped his rifle and fell to the floor clutching his stomach. The three left was taking cover behind some benches, shooting blindly at their random direction.  
  
Ranma could see as the doors to the hall opened and a heavily armed security team entered and opened fire on the would-be-assassins.  
  
He decided that he couldn't help decided to see too the injured security guards wound. He quickly pressed a couple of pressure points to decrease the bleeding and make it easier for the man to breath.  
  
He then fixed a provisory bandage to stop the bleeding completely and tied it tightly across the mans chest. He silently thanked Doc Tofu for the medical lessons and then sighed, somehow chaos seemed to be a constant part in his life.  
  
Right when he thought that he finally was rid of it, Karma seemed to come and give him a hard kick in the ass.  
  
The fight with the assassins was short and brutal, ending almost the instant the armed security entered the room.  
  
He could see as a couple of medics entered the through the doors and began to patch up the wounded. Ranma made sure the old lady was okay and then helped her to her feet. He sighed and then quickly left the scene, the security and medical personnel had begun to swarm inside the now crowded hall.  
  
--------------------------------------------  
  
He walked fast through the halls of the building, wearing a white lab-coat, and hidden underneath a M4-automatic rifle.  
  
Following him was another five people, wearing the same clothes and carrying the same weapons. Getting the men into the building was hard but he had managed to fool the guards into letting them in. Unfortunately he would blow his cover he had managed to build up, but it was small price compared to the gain they would get when there objective was finished.  
  
The attack at London tower had failed, and Integra was almost impossible to get near with her pet vampire Alucard following her around, but the Queen was another matter and they had decided to strike today when she had a relatively small guard. The death of Incognito was a setback, but in the end it was only a minor one.  
  
They would kill her using silver bullets, and maybe they would blame Hellsing for her death, but it wasn't the main objective. That was to kill the Queen, they would disappear in the chaos that followed the Queens death.  
  
He opened the door to the training hall and peeked inside, the Queen was walking down the stairs and heading towards a man picking up staffs.  
  
He walked in and raised the rifle, aiming at the head of the Queen. At this distance he couldn't miss.  
  
-----------------------------------------------  
  
"007 please take a look at this." M said.  
  
James stood up from where he was examining a pool of blood. He walked up to were M was standing and looked at where she was pointing.  
  
On the floor two pieces of a six foot long staff was lying, broken in the middle.  
  
"The security team found two of the attacker's unconscious here." M said and gestured towards the floor.  
  
"May I ask how that is possible? We didn't even get near them." James said.  
  
"See the staff?" M said and pointed two the broken pieces.  
  
"Yes" James said and raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Do you remember what the trainer did shortly before the first bullets hit?"  
  
"Yes, he tackled the Queen to the floor, felled you, and threw away his sta..." James stopped and looked down on the piece of wood lying on the floor. Then he looked back at where they had been standing when the attack began, it was a good sixty metres away.  
  
"He threw away his staff on the attackers?" He asked a little shocked, to throw a staff sixty metres and then hit needed an immense skill.  
  
Then he though about the fact how he had reacted to the attack. The surprise on his face appeared at the same moment he began to move, he reacted instantaneous. He had not been standing still in shock like most people would have done.  
  
"Yes, and he remained calm during the entire fight, covering the Queen from bullets with his own body. And when she was in safety he pulled out the guard from the line of fire and took care of his wounds. The doctors said that he had patched up the guard like an expert would." Q said and stood up from were he was sitting.  
  
"Impressive when you think about the fact that he is only a trainer in hand to hand." James said as he walked next to M.  
  
"Well I don't know for how long he will be that." M said and sighed.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"I am seriously thinking about letting him begin the training to field agent. He is showing extreme promise, and with the fact we are running short on personnel I don't see how we can pass up this opportunity." M answered his question.  
  
"Isn't he a bit young to become a member of the Secret Service?" James said and looked at M.  
  
"You aren't the person to talk 007, if I remember correctly you where only two years older then him when you began active duty." M said with an amused voice.  
  
James grinned a little sheepishly and scratched his neck.  
  
"Guess your right."  
  
--------------------------------------------------  
  
"So, Walter what is our vampire doing on her nights off?" Integra asked as he entered with the usual silver tray and tea. She was reading a report on the current freak-activity.  
  
Ever since the Incognito incident the attacks had being coming less frequent, but they where getting worse for each time. She then quickly looked through the report about the new recruits. Hellsing was still severely undermanned, having only about ¼ of the strength before Incognito.  
  
Walter looked at Integra and thought on how he should proceed.  
  
"It appears as Miss Victoria is meeting a man, which if the information I gained was correct she has done for the last two months." Walter said as he poured Integra a cup of tea.  
  
"A man? Hmm... I wonder what Alucard will say when he finds out his fledgling is meeting a human?"  
  
"Sir may I give you an advice regarding this matter?" Walter said.  
  
"Yes Walter."  
  
"If I were you I would not interfere with it, just pretend you never knew about it. Miss Victoria seemed quite happy when she was with the man, and telling Alucard would only result into two things. Either it will lead to one of his practical jokes, which I highly doubt Victoria will find amusing. Or Alucard will simply forbid Victoria to meet him, because it wouldn't be fit for a vampire to meet with a normal human, and both would have the same result, Victoria would blame you for it." Walter finished with a bow.  
  
"As long as she doesn't do anything to threaten Hellsing I will not interfere in any way." Integra said simply.  
  
------------------------------------------  
  
Ranma had barely enough time to get home and get a shower, and then patched up his right arm where he had been hit with some splinters. The wound would be gone by tomorrow, so he only covered it by a simple bandage.  
  
He shock the incident out of his head, he had been through worse back in Japan. But the fact that they had used guns had put him a little on the edge, the only purpose they fulfilled was to kill another human.  
  
He thought back on his time in Nerima and remembered all the times Kuno had tried to be-head him with his katana, Ryoga kill him with his umbrella or Mousse blow him apart with his egg-bombs. That happened daily.  
  
Who was he kidding, this was a real vacation compared to Nerima.  
  
------------------------------------------  
  
Once again Ceres leaned against Ranmas shoulder and sighed happily, and once again she was wearing Ranmas coat. As she snuggled closer she detected the faint smell of blood coming from his arm together with two other scents, scents she knew she should know but couldn't quite put the finger on them. She gently brushed her hand over his arm and could fell the bumps from a bandage.  
  
"Are you injured?" She said a little worriedly, she as a vampire could heal a wound in seconds, but a normal human like Ranma needed much time.  
  
"A little accident at work" He said with a shrug, and it wasn't really a lie.  
  
She nodded in understanding, and didn't pry anymore in the issue. Had she known that the two other scents she picked up was gun smoke and that of silver she would have been plainly alarmed.  
  
She just shrugged it of and snuggled closer. Ranma didn't notice.  
  
---------------------------------------------  
  
M was quite shocked to see Ranma walk in through the door like nothing had happened. Most of the staff was looking at him with respect. Everyone had heard about the fire-fight in the training hall, but no one knew for sure what had happened.  
  
There were some rumours, one said that the new hand-to-hand instructor had taken some bullets aimed at the Queen, another rumour said he had beaten the crap out of ten men trying to attack the Queen.  
  
But the one most believed in was the one from one of the security guards that said that he had pushed the Queen and their boss out of the way of some bullets, covered the Queen from the incoming bullets with his own body and then later walking through the fire from numerous attackers to drag a wounded guard out of harms way.  
  
---------------------------------------------  
  
"So let me get this straight. You want me to become a spy?" Ranma asked unbelievingly.  
  
"We prefer the terms "agent" or "field operative", but in simple terms, yes" M said as she looked at the young man.  
  
"Why me?" Ranma asked again.  
  
"Well, you appear to be extremely promising, you can speak four languages..."  
  
"Three languages, Japanese, Chinese, and English, I am still learning Russian." Ranma said.  
  
"You have learned things at an incredible speed. And the fact you are extremely fit, makes you a first hand choice to become a trainee." M continued like Ranma hadn't said anything.  
  
Ranma just sat there, staring at the ceiling. Him an agent? He mentally chuckled at the thought. But still, the thought wasn't unappealing...  
  
"Why not, I will try my best. But just so you know." Ranma said.  
  
"Yes?" M said and raised an eyebrow.  
  
"I am a horrible lair." He said and his face broke out into a grin.  
  
----------------------------------------------------------  
  
Ranma left eye twitched. Violently.  
  
"You mean that the lady I saved was the Queen of England? Ranma said shocked.  
  
"You mean you didn't know?" M said surprised.  
  
"Nope" Ranma said and got a sheepish grin and scratched his neck nervously. M knew that she reminded him of someone but he couldn't put his finger on whom. The stance, the sheepish grin, the scratching of the neck it was... she just couldn't remember who it was.  
  
"Well, in either case she wanted to thank you that you saved her and her guard's life. And she wanted me to invite you to dinner so she could thank you personally." M said.  
  
"You should know that the one thing that's worse then my lying abilities is my table manners." Ranma said with dread in his voice.  
  
M just chuckled at that.  
  
He had the felling Ranma would become a quite good agent, and maybe perhaps even a 00, but he still had a long way to go before that.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------  
  
He sighed as he left the room, he had been a little nervous during the entire evening.  
  
"How did I do?" He asked M as they left the huge dinning room.  
  
"You handled yourself perfectly fine. I think you made a good impression on them" She said to the obviously nervous agent-in-training.  
  
A loud sigh escaped the young mans lips. He had been worried he might "fuck-up" as one of his dart friends would have put it, but being confirmed he didn't he relaxed a little.  
  
But he still didn't like the fact he was the attention of so many people. If he had the choice between going through the fire-fight, or the dining with the Queen again he would have chosen the fire-fight without second thought.  
  
"Wait." A voice said from behind him.  
  
Ranma turned around and could see a man wearing a suit and with his left arm in a sling walk towards them.  
  
"Didn't get the proper opportunity to thank you." The man said and held out his hand.  
  
Ranma recognised the man now, it was the security guard he had saved. Ranma shock the mans hand and shrugged.  
  
"No problem." He said.  
  
"Well my wife and children would disagree if they heard you say that." The man said and smiled.  
  
"It was nothing, just glad I could help." Ranma said and shrugged again.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Ranma walked out of his apartment, shouldering a small backpack and then mentally went through the list.  
  
He had cut all electricity, made sure there wasn't any food in the refrigerator, he had paid the rent for an additional two months and told the house owner he would leave for some time, and he had told Ceres that he would be out of country for a month.  
  
Everything had been taken care off. He picked up his suit-case and then locked the door, heading down the stairs. At the airport he checked in his luggage and then took his seat.  
  
Looking out he wondered if he should contact his aunt. His mother had told him he should probably seek her up, there were things she would tell him, but she also said he was in no hurry.  
  
From the beginning he had decided to get an apartment and a job before meeting his aunt, he didn't want to turn up at her doorstep as a homeless beggar. Maybe when he got back he would go to his aunt.  
  
He leaned back in his chair, sitting in the first class apartment, the MI6 had paid the ticket.  
  
He chuckled as he thought about the first time he flew, hanging onto the wing of the plane because Genma was too greedy to pay the ticket. He might just get used to the life of an agent, the MI6 at least knew how to treat their personnel.  
  
"Ranma Saotome, agent in Her Majesty's British Secret Service." He said in a low voice  
  
He chuckled to himself, he liked the sound of that.  
  
Well it was Ranma Saotome, agent-in-training in Her Majesty's British Secret Service, but it didn't really matter to him.  
  
He would be out of country for about a month, continuing his training with a couple of others agents-in-training.  
  
Without a reason a picture of Ceres popped in his head. He would sure miss his best friends.  
  
At the same time at Hellsing manor a certain vampire lying in her coffin sneezed in her sleep. If she had heard what he had though she would have frowned at the term "friend", but she didn't and continued her non-perverted dream of her and Ranma and hugged her pillow while a smile spread across her face.  
  
Ranma felt as the mother of all chills went up his spine and he looked around to make sure there wasn't any fiancées in the area. Making sure the area was clear he quickly settled back into his seat.  
  
Authors Notes  
  
Hmm... can't come up with something to write. 


	4. Agent in training

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Hellsing, James Bond or Ranma, they belong to... someone, but not me.

**Changing Path**

**Chapter-4 Agent in training.**

The plane hit the ground with a screeching of tires against concrete, the craft slowed down and then came to a stand still.

Ranma yawned as the stewardess woke him, he absentmindedly scratched his neck while trying to shake the drowsiness away. Ranma could see as the stewardess walked down the rows of seat and waking up all the other passengers sleeping.

He looked out the window and could see that it was snowing hard, the wings already having a thin sheath of white on them.

It was early in the morning, the sun hadn't come up yet, so the only light came from the airport, but they where dim in the blizzard raging outside the plane.

A prolonged stop in Germany had made that the plane arrived early in the morning.

The compartment was slowly emptying of passengers and once it was only a few left he stood up and opened the overhand baggage storages and picked out his coat.

He put it on and then exited the craft. As he walked down the small staircase leading down from the jet he could feel the freezing wind blow hard against him.

He pulled the coat tightly around him to protect against the cold and then ran to the airport building.

As he entered the building he rubbed his hands to chase away the cold, he shivered a little.

He looked around and then walked towards transport belt to get his luggage.

A man in his mid twenties walked up to Ranma. He picked up his luggage and then both he and Ranma went to the desk to check their luggage out.

"Man it's freezing outside." The man said as the woman behind the desk checked so he got the right suitcase.

Ranma looked at the man.

"Yeah, know what you mean." Ranma said as he rubbed his cold fingers again.

The woman handed the luggage back to the man.

"They told us to prepare for cold weather but I didn't think they meant arctic." The man as he looked outside the window and shivered.

The woman behind the desk handed the suitcase back to Ranma and he thanked her. Both Ranma and the man began to walk away from the desk, going for the security boxes.

They both left their luggage in a security box so they could pick it up later when they needed it, right now they didn't have time to worry about that.

"Well I know one thing now at least." Ranma said as he and the man walked towards a café.

"And what's that?" The man asked as they both took a seat and ordered a coffee to chase away the cold.

"I hate Russian winter, too cold for my tastes" Ranma said as he sipped his coffee, grimaced and then looked down on the cup.

"I also hate Russian coffee." He said and gulped down the last of the coffee with a grimace.

The man chuckled and looked out of the window at the blizzard.

Ranma ordered a cup of tea and swirled a plastic spoon in it boringly.

"Our intel was wrong, shouldn't he be here by now? The man said and looked down on his watch.

"Fourth table on your left behind me, dark suit reading a newspaper." Ranma said as he leaned back in his chair casually.

The man blinked and then took quick look around the café with an absentminded expression. But Ranma knew that he was far from that, he was checking their target, but staying inconspicuous.

"I hate it when you do that Saotome, you haven't looked back once and still you know that he was there."

Ranma just shrugged and gave him one of his cocky grins. He really didn't need to tell him that with his ki senses he could feel the aura of the man. He had needed only a glimpse of him and then he could pinpoint his aura.

"How long has he been there?"

"He was sitting there when we arrived, between five to ten minutes before we entered." He said as he picked up a newspaper and glanced at it.

Unfortunately it was in Russian and his skill in the language was passable at best. He laid it back and looked up at the roof.

"How can you tell so exactly, Saotome?" The man asked.

"His coffee is still warm, it's still steaming, so he can't have been here longer then that." He said and scratched his neck.

"You're just creepy, you know that don't you?" The man said and looked over the café again, and just as he had said the coffee was till steaming.

"Well I have learned to pay attention, you simply live longer if you do that Peter." Ranma said and sipped his tea.

"You're still green, Saotome." Peter said with a frown.

Numerous pictures of a crazy Kendo captain, an almost blind hidden weapons master, a obsessive pig that was built like a tank, and a group of lab goons armed with machine guns filled his head. Often they attacked without warning and then every second was valuable, if he didn't recognize the danger in time he would in big trouble.

Ranma shrugged.

"Just take my words for it okay." Ranma said.

He had always had a good memory and always noticed the small details, it was just that back in Nerima he had only looked for signs of danger, and nothing more. The MI6 had thought him that just because it wasn't dangerous didn't mean that it wasn't important.

"Whatever." Peter said.

The man continued to drink his coffee and read his paper.

Both Ranma and Peter had been handpicked for this mission by M, they where two of the best. It was normal agency regulations to always send two agents on a mission, exceptions were made rarely because of the danger working alone. The only operatives that worked alone were the 00-agents, but that was only because they worked best alone.

M had told them that this was of big importance, if they screwed up it would reflect on the entire bureau. Both Ranma and Peter had been nervous with the amount of responsibility given them, but decided that they would do every thing possibly, (and in Ranma's case impossible), to complete the mission.

A quick debriefing about their target and mission perimeters, followed by a quick visit to Q to get some gear, and they where off to Russia. The bureau had somehow managed to get their gear through the customs which in normal cases would have proved a problem for Peter, Ranma would have simply used the hidden weapons style to get it past them.

The man finished his coffee and then walked out the door, being followed by two pairs of eyes.

Once their target had gotten a good distance away, they too walked out and began to follow the man.

Keeping the man just within eyesight they trailed behind him, both Ranma and Peter cursing the cold weather. The temperature had gone up somewhat when they sun came up on the horizon, but it was still twenty degrees Celsius below zero.

They almost lost him when he walked through a crowded mall, but thanks to Ranma ki senses and their training they found him quickly.

Their target stopped by a five story office building and then entered.

"Do you think this is the place?" Peter said and looked the building over.

"There is only one way to find out." Ranma said and began to walk towards the door.

Peter just blinked and then ran up to Ranma.

"You aren't serious." Peter said.

"Yes I am." Ranma said.

Ranma opened the door and looked back on Peter, he just sighed but followed him.

---------------------------------------------------

Integra was standing before the portrait of her father, contemplating about the number of Hellsing men, or rather the lack thereof. Hellsing had been short on men after Incognitos death, but Integra thought that they would be able to build up their forces with the end of the freak-chips.

She was wrong, the amounts of freak-attacks decreased to barely one a week, but they were a lot worse then anything they had ever encountered before, hundreds of ghouls every time. After the Incognito incident Hellsing had lost ¾ of their soldiers, but now with the new attacks from freaks they where down to 1/8 of the number of men before Incognito.

The recruiting was going slowly, they needed at least a year to replace all lost men, and that was time they didn't have. They had tried to find out where the freak-chips were coming from, and who was behind them, but to no avail.

Then there was Victoria.

The men had always been on their toes when around her, but that was to be expected when you think about their work, but they had never really avoided her until now. It had started when she had been the sole survivor of one of the teams entering a building filled with ghouls.

Victoria had said that they had been ambushed and that she had only barely been able to get out, but there was a rumour flowing around in the barracks that she herself had killed the men in bloodlust.

Integra didn't believe the rumour, Victoria had problems drinking blood from a medical bag and she highly doubted that she was capable of drinking it from the source. If she for one second had doubted Victoria's loyalty she would have killed her immediately, she just couldn't risk having a stray vampire around.

And she was sure that Alucard wouldn't allow his fledgling to go rouge, he was annoying but he was also reliable, he wouldn't put the Hellsing institution in any danger.

Another thing regarding the Victoria was that she had been more relaxed during the last months, she didn't seem to mind the fact that the Hellsing personnel avoided her any more.

It had started a little after she began to meet with the man, and Integra didn't have any problems with that. As long she did her work and didn't endanger Hellsing she could do whatever she wanted.

Well, during the last week Victoria had been very absentminded, always wearing a far away look in her eyes and sighing constantly.

Walter had said that she was lovesick, and just missing her friend. Integra had groaned at that, a bloodthirsty vampire she could handle, a lovesick vampire she could not.

Then there was Alucard, if he had noticed Victoria's meetings he didn't appear to care. He was his usually annoying/mysterious self, always giving Integra headaches with his antics.

She looked up at the portrait of her father and wondered silently what he would have done in her current situation. She sighed, she just couldn't figure out what to do.

A knock on the doors announced Walter with his usual tray of tea and scones. He placed it on the desk, bowed and then walked towards the door. He stopped at the door and looked thoughtful for a moment.

"I almost forgot, a letter arrived to you today through the secure line, but from whom it doesn't say." He said.

Integra raised an eyebrow.

"Where is it?" She said.

Walter pulled out a normal white envelope from a pocket and handed it to Integra. Only the address to her secret post box was on it, nothing that could give a clue to whom had sent it. But Integra knew from who it was directly, she only knew one that could write in such a way.

She quickly seated and opened the letter.

As she had suspected it was from her sister Nodoka, she hadn't heard anything from her in a good two years. She smiled slightly as she began to read the letter, she had always liked her somewhat crazy older sister.

It started off normally with the usual greetings, but when she read the rest she went through it again just to make sure she had understood correct.

Integra got a violent twitch in her left eye.

Nodoka had sent her son to England and wanted her to tell him about the Hellsing family history. She changed "somewhat crazy" into "totally insane", she couldn't believe that Nodoka would want that her son began to work for the Hellsing institute, and more importantly how could she know that he would believe her?

How could she know that he would accept the fact that things as magic, vampires and ghouls existed, and if he didn't believe it he could become a security hazard.

Integra just groaned, sure it would be nice to have some family around but the amount of trouble it would bring... she really didn't want her nephew tangled into the world that she was living in, tangled into the web that was Hellsing and all that came with it.

Unbeknownst to her he already was in deeper then she ever could suspect.

Downstairs sleeping in her coffin the vampire Ceres Victoria sneezed in her sleep.

------------------------------------------------

Ranma covered his mouth and sneezed.

"Stupid weather, I must have caught a cold." Ranma said and grumbled a little.

Ranma entered the building followed by grumbling Peter. A reception desk was the only piece of furniture in the hall that greeted them.

Ranma walked up to it followed by Peter. The woman sitting behind the desk didn't taker her eyes of the computer, she was typing into. She had her black hair tied up into a bun and had a small pair of glasses on.

"You have been expected, third door to the right." She said, still her eyes on the screen.

Both Ranma and Peter blinked and then looked each other.

Ranma just shrugged and gave Peter a cocky-grin.

"Told you." Ranma said.

At that moment Peter just wanted to smash Ranma's face to make that irritating grin disappear.

Peter grumbled loudly.

"Yeah, yeah! Man I'm never going to hear the end of this." Peter said and groaned.

They walked down the corridor and stopped by the third door to the right. They looked at each other again and both shrugged.

"What the hell, it is better then freezing our asses off outside." Peter said and opened the door.

They stepped inside and could see that it only had three occupants, an elderly woman in her late sixties wearing an Russian uniform, an man in his mid fifties they recognised as their target, and their commander James Bond. The three was sitting around a small table.

"I see you made it, I'm impressed." Their target said and leaned back in his chair.

"Thanks, it wasn't easy." Peter said.

"Well I am glad you made it. Welcome to the Co-operation for International Security or C.I.S for short." The woman said.

Both Peter and Ranma, together with James Bond, had been chosen to represent Great Britain in the yearly meting of C.I.S.

After the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war the hostilities between NATO and the former Soviet began to cease.

Now that the threat of a nuclear war between NATO and the Soviet was no more, the agencies who had been bitter rivals began to work together.

Now the threats didn't come from different countries, now they came from international criminal organizations that put up disguises as legal companies, splinter cells from the former Soviet that worked as mercenaries and having access to military hardware and in some rare cases nuclear weapons, and political extremists that tried to achieve their goals with terrorist-activity.

To put a stop to this the different Intelligence-agencies began to work together to achieve international security.

To further better the relations between the different countries the C.I.S was formed. It was one month long meting where every country sent two agents-in-training and one experienced agent. The trained agents would work as teachers and tell about how their countries agencies worked, the training methods with which they trained their future agents, and such.

There weren't only seminaries, there was training missions in everything ranging from hostage-rescue to bomb defusing.

Then there was the highlight of the entire meting, the technique show. There the agents could stroll around and check what the other agents gear consisted of. Basically the tech-geeks showed off their new toys.

In reality the entire C.S.I meting was a big international spy school, training the students in a wide array of skills.

Apart from the teaching the veterans secretly traded information on new threats and discussed what to do about them.

This year it was Russia's time to host the meting.

This year the veterans had decided to play the rookies a small practical joke with the entire "trail-the-target" thing, and some bets where made on the outcome.

James stood up from the chair and he was sitting on.

"Well it was a pleasure meting you again, maybe we will se each other later" James said towards the two people sitting down.

Ranma and Peter followed James outside to a waiting van. At the back they could see their luggage that they had left in the security boxes at the airport. They didn't question it, they where agents after all.

Both shrugged and took a place inside, there was already four people sitting there.

A quick greeting and they found out that the other like them was representatives from the US and France respectively.

The van took off and headed outside Moscow to a military base.

----------------------------------

M sat and read the newest reports on the second attempt to murder the Queen. They had little to go after, the three men they had managed to take alive had committed suicide in their cells before they could be interrogated. All traces on where the men came from stopped in Hong Kong.

M groaned, they where supposed to be the best, but still they couldn't find a single trace, worse the Queen still insisted that she kept out of the case.

She could only think about one good thing about the day.

007 wasn't near, and he wasn't on some dangerous mission that would cause major property damage. He was her best agent, but he was also her most troublesome agent.

But now she was happy, he was half a world away in Russia, and he would just work as a teacher for the time being, no access to weapons, and M shuddered at the thought, high explosives.

---------------------------------

Ranma groaned as he threw himself on the bed. It was the last day of C.I.S meting and it had ended with a long seminary, and Ranma being Ranma hated school, no matter what the case.

Even though it had bored him like hell he had managed to stay awake.

Well now he should pack and then they would be off towards the airport and England. He quickly began to pack his suitcase and made sure he didn't forget anything, he turned around and saw that Peter already was finished.

Both left the small room they shared and walked through numerous halls and down numerous stairs.

A small group of trucks were already waiting for them. He and Peter stepped up to the one closest to them and found that it already was filled, they walked from truck to truck but there wasn't a single vacant seat. They where running out off truck to check.

Opening the door to the second last truck they found a single vacant seat between a blonde and a redhead. Peter seemed to disappear from his side and reappear on the empty seat with a happy smile plastered on his face, the girls got a little irritated look in their eyes.

Peter turned towards Ranma.

"See you later mate." He said with toothy grin.

Ranma's left eye twitched violently, Peter was even worse then Kuno in some matters.

Ranma grumbled as he closed the door and dragged his suitcase over to the last truck. He opened the back and threw the luggage in and then opened the door.

He stopped as he was about to step inside and blinked a few times. There was a single seat unoccupied but it wasn't because off this he stopped. The entire truck was carrying all the senior agents and they were looking mildly interested at him, he had the small ID-badge on his chest that identified him as one of the "students".

Ranma nervously took a seat, he could see that he was the only rookie. Off all the trucks he had to land in the one with the bosses.

He had just broken the first rule in the book, do not draw the attention of the seniors.

Well it wasn't anything he could do about it now, he thought as the engines of the truck started.

He leaned back in his seat and tried to relax a bit.

---------------------------------

Joseph drove slowly down the road, making sure to keep his eyes on the road. The gates of the military base appeared before them, and he slowed down.

Coming to a halt he opened the window and handed the guard his false ID, to his right his partner did the same.

The armed guards took a quick look inside but didn't find anything of interest and let them pass.

Joseph stopped outside a garage and stepped out of his vehicle. It was specially prepared for this mission with an airtight passenger compartment, knock-out gas, and self locking doors.

Now the only problem was to take care of the drivers of the other vehicle. He opened the door to the garage and was thankful that only the two drivers were there. He greeted them and walked up to them followed closely by partner.

When he got close enough Joseph slammed the butt of his pistol over the man's head, knocking him out, next to him he could see as his partner did the same.

Dragging the bodies of the two unconscious drivers into a small storage room they quickly changed from their guard uniforms into the drivers' clothes. Making sure to hide the bodies well they stepped out of the small room.

They walked back outside and stepped inside their truck.

Now the hardest part was done.

Their mission was simple, drive into the base with false ID, take care of the drivers and take their place. They would use the specially prepared truck to take some of the most important intelligence personnel in the world. It appeared like some had been getting close to revealing their organization, and they wanted to make sure how much they really knew.

They would "convince" them to co-operate so that they could monitor what the different agencies was doing more exactly. And if they didn't want to do that, they would just simply kill them.

---------------------------------

Ranma could see as the truck took a different way then rest off the trucks, and he could see that the others had noticed as well. A woman in her middle thirties had opened her mouth to say something but didn't get the chance.

The small glass hatch between them and the drivers slammed shut and an audible hissing was heard.

The other passengers covered just slumped down in their seat unconscious. But Ranma didn't, instead he fell into something of a half-sleep, his eyes were open and he could see, but his mind didn't register what happened around him. He had worked up a resistance against drugs thanks to being around Kodachi, and poison thanks to Akane (the US had been interest in buying her food and use it as a bio-weapon, but decided against it when they saw the cruelty of it).

After a long drive they stopped and a couple of thugs wearing masks opened the door and began to drag them out.

They dragged Ranma and the others through some kind of old industry facility, rusty and old machines where standing around.

They opened a thick metal door and carried them inside. Eight metal chairs was standing in two rows facing each other.

The thugs placed him and the others in the chairs and tied them up.

-----------------------------------------

James groaned as he began to regain conscious. He opened his eyes slowly, but closed them again as he was met with the bright light. Everything was blurry, but after a couple of minutes he began to recognise familiar figures, the forms of his colleagues who also began to regain conscious.

It was a huge room made off brick, a good ten metres high, and had probably been used as a storage area.

James took a deep breath and cursed himself for falling into this trap, he was one of the best, this shouldn't happen to him.

He tested the bonds, but they where to strong, he couldn't budge them one inch. The rest had regained conscious as well and they where looking confusingly around. His feet where stuck with the legs of the chair, his arms where locked tightly over the armrest and a long leather strap went over his chest to hold him in place.

James didn't have the slightest idea how he should get out of this mess, he couldn't move a millimetre, and he didn't have any Q's equipment on him.

He began to look around for anything he could use to get out of this chair. The rest was doing the same, trying desperately to find a way out of this mess.

He was interrupted when the door to the room opened and three men walked in. Two of them was carrying automatic rifles and the third had an iron pipe in his hands.

Everyone was looking at the man as he walked between the rows like a drill sergeant.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen, my name is Dimitri Chekov and I will be your host for tonight." The man said with a cruel smile.

Nobody said anything.

"I will give every one of you the same chance, you answer my questions and co-operate and I will treat you just fine. However if you don't... well then painful thing will happen." The man said, still with the cruel smile on his lips.

Nobody said anything. The man stood before the student that had been with them, and raised the iron pipe like he was about to strike.

The boys just raised an eyebrow, but didn't look afraid.

"What do you work with?" Dimitri asked.

The boy didn't answer.

The iron pipe struck him in the stomach and his face fell forwards as he gasped for air.

"I will give you another chance, what do you work with?"

The boy didn't say anything as he gasped for air.

The man began to hit him with the iron pipe, slamming it into his stomach and hitting him over the face. James could see as some closed there eyes and looked away. The sound as the pipe struck was disgusting. The treatment went on for over ten minutes.

It looked like the boy was unconscious, but the man still beat on him. The boys face was a mask of pain.

The man stopped and turned towards the others.

"This is what happens if you try to play heroic. I will give you some time to think about my generous offer and then I will return." The man said and moved towards the door, the men carrying automatic rifles following him. The man knocked on the door and half a second later it opened.

The iron door closed with a screech from rusty hinges. Once they where gone everyone turned towards the boy. He was still gasping for air.

"Are you okay?" One said in concern.

The boy opened one eye and looked around, and after making sure there wasn't any hidden cameras and such sat back up like nothing had happened.

"Any ideas on how to get out?" the boy asked.

Everyone just stared in shook as the boy went from almost dead to as healthy as can be.

The beating hadn't hurt Ranma much, he had gotten worse from Akane and her damn mallet on daily basic.

Everyone quickly composed themselves again and shook their head in negative.

"These bonds are almost impossible to get out off." John, a CIA veteran from the USA said.

He tried to rip them apart but wasn't able to do it, strength was Ryoga's thing, not Ranma's. He promised himself that once he was back in England he would begin to visit a gym or something like that.

Ranma looked around the room for anything useful but couldn't find anything. He sighed and let his head drop in defeat.

He blinked once, twice and then smiled.

"Bingo." He said and everyone looked at him.

He began to try and get his ID-card on his chest between his teeth. After a moment he managed to sink his teeth in it and then ripped hard. He had the card and the small metal security pin in his mouth.

Some of them looked on him in confusion while other recognised what he was trying to do.

He spit the plastic card on the floor and then opened his palm and managed to spit the small security needle into it.

Using it he began a special technique Genma had thought him as a child to feed his fat stomach "Anything Goes Master-Lock-Pick". Genma was an idiot but he knew how to steal and open locks like a professional thief.

He fumbled with the lock for half a minute and then heard a small click. Now that he had a free hand the next lock wasn't a problem, and soon he was standing up with a triumphant smile on his face.

He began to walk from person to person and unlock their bonds and soon everyone was free.

"So how are we going to get out of this? I mean we can't open the door, it doesn't have a handle." A woman said and pointed towards the door.

"We will have to use that vent, it's the only way, unless we want to wait for our friendly host to return." A man said and pointed to a air vent located eight metres above the floor over the door.

"And please tell how we will be able to get up there?" The woman said.

"We can..." The man tried to say but stopped in mid-sentence as Ranma jumped up and took a good grip on the net covering the vent.

"What the hell?" He said unbelievingly, no one could jump eight metres straight up in the air.

"Wait here, I will open the door for you." Ranma said and ripped the net away as if it was just paper.

Two minutes later the door opened and everyone turned to see Ranma standing in the door holding an assortment of weapons. He threw a weapon to each person and then made a gesture for them to follow him.

"Where the hell did you get these weapons?" John said as he held onto the AK-74 rifle.

"Borrowed them." He said and moved out from the door.

As they stepped out into the corridor they just blinked in confusion. There was unconscious bodies lying everywhere. Everyone was dressed as the two guards that had escorted the man, the only difference was that they where missing their weapons.

Everyone looked at Ranma with newfound respect.

---------------------------------------------

M was drinker her tea when she got a familiar feeling up her spine. It reminded her a lot of the feeling she got when James had done something that she wouldn't like, but it wasn't quite the same, just eerily familiar.

----------------------------------------------

They dove for cover behind a couple of metal crates. The bullets pinged of them.

James cursed, they where trapped. He fired a short burst to keep those guards down, and to give them time to get an escape-plan. He scanned the room quickly and his eyes stopped on the big military jeep.

"Bingo." He said with a smile.

He pointed towards the jeep and everyone nodded their heads in understanding.

He fired another burst to suppress the guards and then took off towards the parked vehicle.

In the resulting tumult that issued Ranma somehow ended up behind the steering wheel.

He looked confused for a second.

"Get us out of here now!" Came the gathered yell from the back.

He started the engine, laid in a gear, looked forward, gripped the steering wheel tightly, and then hit the pedal. The vehicle accelerated with incredible speed... backwards.

The jeep slammed into a pair of crates who tipped over and fell over a couple of guards who was fumbling with a couple of grenades. The grenades, which from the beginning were meant to destroy the jeep, rolled down a flight of stairs and stopped at a huge tank... filled with fuel.

"Where the hell did you get you drivers licence?" John yelled from the back of the car where he was lying on the car floor. The jeep was still stuck at the pile of crates

Ranma who finally figured out how the gear worked turned towards the back.

"I don't have one!" He yelled.

Everyone paled, this wasn't good.

But Ranma decided to ease their fears...

"But I did see "the fast and the furious"!" He said and shifted gear.

And failed miserably.

"We are doomed." Came from the back.

Ranma hit the peddle once again, and this time the jeep shoot forwards and through the closed doors.

The grenades, who were still lying under a fuel tank, then decided to go BOOM.

A hundred metres away in a jeep eight people could see as a huge pillar of flame erupted from the building complex.

All of the agents sighed in relief and was about to tell Ranma to stop when the rattle of weapons made them look back.

A couple of jeeps was following them at high speed and shooting.

Ranma just shifted to a higher gear and hit the peddle to the metal. Seven agents were thrown to the floor of the car as a wild car chase began.

-----------------------------------------

M once again felt as another familiar feeling went up her spine, but also this time it wasn't completely the same.

It reminded her off the felling she got whenever James had caused major property damage.

M just groaned.

------------------------------------------

A military jeep exited the forest and slowly made its way towards the Moscow airport. The jeep was a wreck, dents, scratches and missing plates where just some faults.

The hood was damaged beyond repair, both lights were malfunctioning, the engine compartment looked like so someone had driven the thing into a tree (which wouldn't be to far off) All the windows were missing, a thick plume of smoke was rising from the engines, one of the wheels looked like it would be falling off (which it did a moment later) just to name a few faults.

It was a wonder the thing was actually moving.

But the jeep wasn't even looking as bad as it passengers. Everyone looked like they had met the devil himself, their faces was pale and filled with fear.

Even James Bond, notorious for his wild car chases was shivering a little (but if you would have asked him about it he would have said it was because of the cold).

The only one who didn't seem to mind was the driver, who had scratched his neck absentmindedly.

He pressed the brake and miraculously they where still working. The jeep came to a slow halt and the Ranma opened the door to driver seat and stepped out.

As he opened it water splashed out of the jeep. Ranma sweat-dropped as he looked back on the passengers, who was clinging to the interior of the jeep in death-fear.

They staggeringly exited the vehicle and began to move towards the nearest bar, right now they needed something strong to calm down there nerves.

Ranma just shrugged and began to walk towards a desk to get a flight back home. Right now the only thing Ranma wanted was to sleep for the rest of the week.

He felt an arm fall on his shoulder and turned around to see his James standing before him.

"Kid, once we get back you are going right to a driver school." He said.

----------------------------------------------

Ranma was sitting in the "hanged man" and sipping a cup of tea. He could hear the door open but didn't pay it any attention, he was simply too tired.

"Ranma!" Came a happy yell, and _that_ he did pay attention to.

Followed by the yell was a blonde who glomped onto his arm. Ranma blinked and looked confused on Victoria who was smiling at him.

"Hi Ceres, so want to go to a movie or something?" He asked, and looked into her crimson eyes.

God it was good to see his friend again. Even though Ranma had changed a lot he still was ignorant when it came to girls.

"Sure."

---------------------------------------------

M read the latest report on Ranma progress. It was a good month since the entire Moscow incident and Ranma had been away one week to learn to handle weapons.

Ranma had been quite good in that department, not that he was a master marksman but still good enough.

He had excelled in one area of the training program, and it appeared he had gained a real fondness for it, and M shuddered at the thought... high explosives.

The trainers had said that he was a natural when it came to handling explosives. M couldn't for the love of god understand why you needed talent to blow things up, it was just placing a bomb and then run like hell.

Then there was another area Ranma had trained in, one that James had insisted on that Ranma should take, car driving.

---------------------------------------------

Ranma had just returned from his stay in Newcastle and had decided to invite Victoria to dinner in some fancy Italian restaurant.

After a good dinner they where slowly walking down the streets of London. Victoria was as always holding onto his arm and leaning her head against his shoulder.

As they walked through an alley Ranma's instincts went into overdrive. Something wasn't right, something was definitely not right. He could feel an unnatural cold fall over his body.

He stopped with a frown on his face, eyes darting from side to side as he searched for the disturbance. Everything seemed to be covered by mist.

Victoria looked up confused at Ranma.

Ranma began to extend his senses, using sight beyond sight to see through the mist and scanning for presence he felt.

He closed his eyes and could first feel the aura of himself, then he began to slowly extend it felling the aura of Victoria standing next to him. He could feel the natural flow of ki around him, the ground, the brick wall, and then something... He couldn't describe it, it didn't have an aura normal meaning, it felt strange, artificial somehow.

Only a small spark of ki was left in them, not enough to keep an human alive but there still was energy there, not ki and not chi, but it felt awfully familiar and it had a dark and twisted felling. A small thread of energy went from them into a more powerful creature, this one even more dark and twisted.

He extended his senses more and could feel that there were hundred of them, all moving towards them.

"We go to get out here now." Ranma said, he really didn't want Victoria caught in this kind of fight.

Now Victoria could feel them also, but unlike Ranma she knew what they where, ghouls. She looked up at Ranma, she couldn't let him stay here, he wouldn't stand a chance against the ghouls.

He began to back away dragging Victoria behind him. He stopped and looked forward into the mist and frowned. Victoria looked back and wondered why they and stopped.

"We are surrounded." He said.

Victoria looked at Ranma strangely, but then she to could feel the ghouls moving towards them from the other way.

She looked surprised as Ranma took a martial-arts stance.

The mist started to move like it was alive, dark shapes seen slowly walking in it. Out of the mist hundreds of shapes appeared, some wearing normal clothes and some wearing the uniform that identified them as members of Hellsing institute.

Victoria felt cold fear for Ranma's safety as he stepped between her and the ghouls.

The former Hellsing members raised their rifles and fired.

She could feel as one of the silver bullets hit her in the shoulder and another in her chest before Ranma threw himself over her and pushed her behind a trashcan for cover. Victoria was in a world of pain, silver was a vampires greatest weakness.

She could only stare in wonder as the ghouls holding the rifles turned into ash.

As soon as the ghouls brought up their rifles Ranma had thrown four of the double-bladed daggers towards the things and pushed Victoria behind out of the way of the bullets.

Whatever they where they weren't human and not even living and they had threatened Victoria. So with Happosai's words of wisdom he attacked.

He groaned as he felt a searing pain in his shoulder as the bullets hit. But right now he didn't have the time to care about it. When Victoria was in relative safety he threw another four daggers towards the oncoming horde.

He used Ryoga's bandanna trick and charged the daggers with ki. The daggers cut down numerous of those things and turned them into ash.

They charged him and he threw away his last four daggers before pulling out both his katanas from hidden weapons space.

Pulling the energy of live from his body he led strengthened the blades with ki, and in the process making them glow with a holy light.

Falling into a two weapons combo style he attacked and began to decimate the ghouls.

Victoria was freezing, the silver had seriously hurt her and she couldn't mover her body, her breathing was ragged. She wasn't sure if she was conscious or dreaming, but she was betting on the last.

Ranma looked like an angel with the golden aura surrounding him, then like an angel of death as he pulled out two swords from his sleeves. The picture was becoming unfocused.

Ranma was sweating, the pain in his shoulder was becoming unbearable, and the tide of enemies didn't seem to stop.

He could see as a couple of ghouls were moving towards the downed Ceres. He frowned and threw one of his blades.

The blade beheaded the ghouls and then stuck into a brick wall to the hilt.

Holding his remaining blade in both his hands he made a quick dash and made a 360 degrees swipe, cutting down three ghouls who was trying to attack him from behind.

Sweat was pouring down his face, the wound to his shoulder was severely restricting his combat skill.

He jumped back to prepare for an attack he began charge his blade with ki. He began to form the ki into a familiar pattern and once he was finished he charged.

Grinning he charged but when he got within five metres he made a 180 degrees swipe in waist-height.

"First class demon god assault blade." He whispered and let out a massive vacuum blade from his sword, cutting the ghouls apart and blowing apart a wall behind them.

He could se numerous ghouls appear out of the mist, he had maybe taken care of a good deal but not all.

Holding the blade with his uninjured arm he charged again.

Those things lunged clumsily at him and Ranma cut them apart with ease.

As the last ghoul turned into dust he turned towards Victoria and began to walk towards her.

"Not bad... for a human." He could hear a voice from somewhere in the mist. Ranma looked around but couldn't find who had talked.

Ranma spit out a little blood on the ground and then spoke.

"Whatever you are show yourself."

A man appeared in the mist, holding a small submachine gun in his hand. He was wearing jeans and t-shirt. He raised the gun it and pointed it towards Ranma's head.

"Think you can dodge a bullet?" The man said with a smile.

Ranma didn't say anything, he was thinking about what he should do.

The mans smile widened and he fired. Ranma seeing the small movement off his arm that betrayed that he would shoot leaned his head seemingly bored to the side.

To the vampire who fired it really looked like he dodged the bullet.

"Yes I think I can." He said and poured massive amounts of ki to his legs to speed up the attack.

He seemingly flowed around the bullets the vampire fired, but in reality he just predicted the vampires move. He closed the space between them and raised his blade to strike.

The vampire eyes widened in fear and he fired straight forwards, but this time Ranma didn't have the time dodge.

He took numerous hits to the chest at the same time he brought the blade down on the vampire's neck. The vampire hissed viscously, and then turned into ash.

Ranma slumped to the ground, clutching his chest. He looked up towards Victoria and began to stagger towards her.

He fell to his knees beside her and examined the wounds. Her ki was fluctuating rapidly, and was growing weaker by the second.

He summoned a bit of his own and began to lead it to her wounds, increasing her healing abilities dramatically. He picked her up and began to move towards the street. He stopped and looked down on her face, crimson orbs looking in terror on him. He opened his mouth but not a word came out.

He quickly spun around where he stood, holding Ceres in his left arm while holding his katana in the right. He beheaded the ghoul who had managed to sneak up on him and then turned his eyes back towards Ceres.

He could see that she was crying, but instead of normal tears she cried tears of blood.

He slumped to the ground and stared up at the stars.

Ceres could se as Ranma picked her up from the ground, warmth filling her body at his touch. He began to move towards the street, Ceres looking in awe at what he had done.

She looked into his eyes and then her eyes widened in terror. Ranmas body jerked a little and she could see the tip of the combat knife sticking out of his neck. She looked around his shoulder and could see a ghoul in Hellsing clothes holding the knife. Ranma opened his mouth trying to say something but only blood came out.

He jerked again as the ghoul pulled the blade from Ranma neck, blood pouring from the wound.

He spun around and summoned his katana, and with one quick motion beheaded the ghoul.

The katana fell from his hands with a clatter. He raised the hand and brushed his finger over the wound and the pulled away and looked as the bloody fingers in confusion.

He looked her straight in her eyes and then fell to his knees, still holding Ceres.

He tried to stand up, but failed. He fell backwards and was lying emotionless on the ground, looking up at the stars with glassy eyes.

A pool of blood was slowly forming around his head.

Ceres cried, tears of blood trailing down her checks. The pain in her shoulder and chest increased, silver was really dangerous to vampires, but this time she didn't fight away the darkness.

Now she truly had lost everything, now the peace of internal darkness was welcome.

She didn't fear death this time, like the time in Cheddar church.

A final trail of blood fell from her eyes and mixed with the blood of the person who had died to protect her.

Ceres Victoria embraced the peace of darkness

-----------------------------------

In another part of London Alucard looked up from the remains of the vampire and seemed to scan for something in the distant.

He could feel the link with his fledgling flicker for a moment and then disappear completely.

He tried to search for the link but knowing already before that it was a futile attempt. A vampire could perhaps block the link to ones master but not cut it off completely.

The only way to sever a link formed between a vampire and his master would be death.

-----------------------------------

**Authors Notes**

Finally done, sorry for taking this long but real life has once again caught up with me.

Now that school once again has started it will probably take more time between my updates.


	5. Love Story

**Disclaimer: **Don't own this, just write it.

**Author's notes: Sorry about the strange lines in between the scenes but didn't allow them. **

**Changing Path**

**Chapter- 5 Love Story**

Ceres awoke with a jolt, tears streaming down her checks. She didn't try to stop them. She had seen Ranma die, being stabbed in the neck by a ghoul, and she had only been able to watch on in terror.

He had died protecting her, she was supposed to fight ghouls, but she had only been able to watch on in terror.

Through sobs she looked around on where she was. She was lying in her coffin, back in Hellsing manor, but how she got there she had no idea. The last thing she remembered was darkness taking hold of her mind back in the alley.

She hugged her pillow for dear life, sobbing. She had lost the only person who cared about her, who treated her like a person and not like an object. She wept for the life lost.

Hours later the sobs began to reside a little.

Her eyes were red and puffy as she reached out with a trembling hand towards the button that would open the lid.

It opened without a sound and she sat up in.

She hugged her knees to her and continued to sob, she had seen the man she loved die by the hands of the ghouls.

The pain subsided for a moment replaced by a burning rage. She formed her hand into a fist and slammed it into the wall.

Her entire body was trembling in restrained pain and anger, she cursed herself for letting Ranma die. She was a vampire, she was supposed to be able to withstand ghouls, but yet she had failed and the price was Ranma´s life.

A spider web of cracks appeared on the wall, and a small stream of crimson blood trailed down her wrist.

She pulled her hand out of the wall and looked on it with anger.

Why wasn't she able to protect him?

She stood up on shakily legs and looked at herself in the full length mirror standing by the wall.

Her clothes was a mess, long rips was and dried blood was all over it.

Her hair wasn't better, hanging in strips from her face with dried blood holding it together. Her eye were red and puffy after hours of crying, her face was covered it dirt and dried blood.

Ranma´s blood.

She discarded the clothing and threw it into a trashcan and then took a quick shower to wash away the blood. The water took a pink hue as the blood washed away and went down the drain.

Her body going on automatic, she dressed in her usual Hellsing-uniform and went out the door.

Her face had an expression of absolute sorrow, of someone who had lost everything, a dead person.

She walked aimlessly through the halls of Hellsing manor, not carrying about the looks she received from the Hellsing operatives.

She climbed the stair leading to the higher levels of the mansion, just seeking a place were she could be alone. She looked out on the cloudless night trough the windows and then opened one of the balcony doors.

She stepped out in the cold night and sat down on a marble bench. Leaning her back against the wall, she pulled up her knees and hugged them to her tightly.

She wept silently, crying for her lost love.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sir Integra Fairbrooks Wingate van Hellsing was sitting behind the desk and listening to the captain reporting about last night's event.

"We arrived too late, the entire second team was already dead when we arrived, ripped apart or turned into ghouls."

"Any casualties from your squad?" Integra asked, but she already knew the answer.

Fighting ghouls or vampires always cost lives, and if the entire second team had been turned into ghouls they would be armed.

"No Sir." The captain said and seemed to think about something.

Integra raised an eyebrow, zero casualties meant that something unexpected had happened. Even if the Hellsing knights were trained to kill ghouls and vampires they would still have casualties if facing armed ghouls.

"We arrived too late to be of any assistance to second team, however..." The captain made a pause in his explanation.

"However?" Integra asked.

"Second team was dead, but so were every single ghoul, and the freak vampire" The captain said.

"Explain." Integra said simply.

"We arrived to second squad's position and found a few scattered piles of ash from the ghouls and blood from our team. However we found not a single ghoul alive in the area so we began to search the immediate surrounding area. We found the ghouls, or rather what was left of them."

"What do you mean?" Integra asked puzzled

"We found hundreds of piles of ash in an alley, plus gear and weapons belonging to second team. Something had cut every single ghoul apart."

He reached down to a backpack lying next to him and picked up an MP5-submachine-gun and handed it to Integra. Or rather the two pieces of a MP5, it was severed in the middle with a clean cut, no edges. Then the captain picked up two stones halves from the back. They too were cut apart, having a smooth polished surface that reflected her face.

Integra raise an eyebrow.

"When I said that something cut them apart I wasn't joking. Something shredded the ghouls..."He started.

He held up the rifle and pointed to the cut.

"Their equipment and weaponry..." He continued.

He then held up the two stone halves for her to see.

"And a half meter thick stone wall apart." He finished.

"Any idea who did this?" She asked and pointed to the destroyed rifle. She maybe would have tipped on the Paladin Alexander Anderson, he would have been able to kill those ghouls, had it not been for the fact that he wasn't able to cut down stone walls.

"Well, we found numerous discarded blades lying about the area." The captain said.

Integra began to suspect Anderson again, he was the only one who used blades to battle vampires.

The captain reached down and picked up a cloth bundle from the backpack, which he placed on Integra's desk. He unwrapped it and she could see numerous small daggers.

She picked up one and studied it closely, she recognised it was made of silver immediately. She weighed one in her hand and could feel that it was perfectly balanced. It was a formidable throwing weapon and would be deadly to any ghoul if used correctly.

She discarded Anderson again, he didn't use small daggers like these, and his blades weren't made of silver, they were of metal blessed to kill the undead.

The captain reached down once again and pulled up a long bundle wrapped in a grey military blanket.

In them she found two katanas, but unlike the daggers these weren't made of pure silver. They were made of steel and only had a small silver edge, but one sweep with it and any ghoul would have turned into ash.

These weapons were the tools of a vampire hunter, and if the dead ghouls were any evidence a good on at that.

But what really bothered her was why one would leave the weapons.

"The daggers we found a spread out over the area, lying on the ground for the most part. One of the swords was buried to the hilt in a stone wall and it took us a good thirty minutes to pull it out, and the other one..." He paused.

Integra looked from the object lying on her table to the captain.

"We found next to the body of a man." He finished as Integra's stern gaze met his eyes.

"Body? You mean he was still being turned into a ghoul?"

"No sir. He was wounded, but not from any bites or scratches from a ghoul or vampire. He had numerous bullet-wounds and a deep cut in his neck. He was almost dead by the time we found him, our doctors should be checking on him right now, if he survives I don't know... he was banged up pretty badly"

"So was it the man that killed the ghouls?" She asked.

"I don't know... however you should know that we found Officer Victoria lying next to the man. She too was unconscious but didn't have any wounds. We brought her back to her room. You may want to question her."

Integra looked on the man with an emotionless face and then nodded. The captain saluted quickly and left the office in a hurry, forgetting to take the weapons with him.

There hadn't been any reported Freak-activity so Integra had let Ceres take the night off. Unfortunately the freaks had attacked just a few hours before the sun would rise and they hadn't been able to get hold on Ceres.

As the door closed she sighed, they had lost another thirty men that night. And she couldn't send in Alucard to dispatch of them, now the freaks attacked numerous places every time, with hundreds of ghouls on every attack.

But right now she had different concerns, like what happened exactly with the ghouls, and why the hell Ceres was in the middle of it.

She really needed additional men but the next batch of recruits wouldn't arrive in another month.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Walter was walking down the corridor leading to Victoria's room. Integra had asked him to get the vampire for questioning. It appeared like Victoria had ended up right in the middle of a fight between a vampire hunter and some ghouls, or so Integra's believed.

He quickly walked through the underground corridors of the mansion towards Victoria's room.

He stood in front of the oak door and then pushed it open. He pressed the switch next to the door and the light went on.

The lid to the coffin was open and it was empty. The thing that caught Walter's attention was the huge dent in the solid stone wall, a small trail of blood ran down it. Taking a quick look around the room he found a bloody garment hanging from the trashcan.

Victoria wasn't in the room so he began to search the rest of the mansion. After thirty minutes he was walking along the corridor on the third floor towards Integra's office to report that he was unable to find her.

As he passed an open balcony door he heard someone crying. He stopped and walked towards the door, the drapery covering the door moving a little in the wind.

He pulled them aside and looked out. In the moonlight he could see Victoria sitting on a marble bench, hugging her knees to her and crying softly. Walter moved the drapery back, but the rustling alerted Victoria to his presence.

"Someone there?" She asked and looked towards the door.

"Are you there Miss Victoria?" Walter asked as to give the vampire some time to compose herself.

Victoria quickly whipped her tears away, put her red and puffy eyes didn't hide the fact that she had been crying. Walter pushed the drapery to the side once again and looked at the vampire.

"Are you okay Miss Victoria? I thought I heard crying" He said and looked her over.

"I... I am okay, just needed some time to think, that's all." She said but she was obviously lying, but Walter pretended like he didn't notice.

He really didn't think that it was his matter to pry into her personal business, and he didn't think he could offer any help to her.

"Sir Hellsing wished to speak to you." He said.

"Ye...yes of course, no problem." She said and forced a smile.

Walter only nodded and began to walk towards Integra's office, Victoria trailing after him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

He could felt the fire cover his body but didn't feel any pain.

He launched another series of kicks and punches, but Saffron just regenerated the damage.

"You think you can hurt me? Foolish mortal I am a god!" He said with a deep sadistic laugh.

Ranma didn't say anything, he was breathing hard and sweat was pouring down his face. The fight was tiring him out, and he didn't know how much longer he could continue fighting like this. He groaned and clutched his stomach, he needed a plan.

He looked around where he was standing and could see the body of Akane. Her ki was almost nonexistent and it was flickering. She was lying motionless on the ground with a pale face looking up. He looked back on Saffron and his face became emotionless as he used the soul of ice.

The air around him became icy, and the ground was covered in frost.

He summoned his ki and a golden aura of light surrounded him.

Closing the gap between him and Saffron in a blink both combatants began to rain down blows on each other.

Even though Saffron had immensely bigger ki reserves he wasted much of it on ki attacks that didn't hit Ranma.

Ranma was hard pressed to match Saffron, even though he used everything he knew.

Ranma and Saffron met in mid air, trading punches at unbelievable speeds. They broke of their attack, Saffron flapping his wings to stay aloft and Ranma landing hard on the ground.

He coughed and blood flowed from his mouth. He wiped it away. His hands and arms were covered in burns, not how severe that you might tip coming from such a fight but still painful.

He had used every technique he could think of, even unconsciously using the neko-kens ki claws, but it still wasn't enough. His breathing calmed down and he looked on where Saffron was hovering.

The immense heat his fire aura generated was scorching the ground around him.

"Fire..." He whispered and then looked from Saffron, to Akane, to the spring of healing water and back to Saffron.

It would take everything he had but he was dead set to do it. Charging up his aura again he charged Saffron, but this time he began to circle the Phoenix. His soul of ice technique had now reached such temperatures that it would kill a normal mortal in less then a second.

Ranma was defiantly not just a normal mortal.

The fire the Phoenix generated was protecting him from the cold.

The circles he was running began to get smaller and smaller. As he began to reach the middle he began to summon his remaining ki.

He dodged the balls of flames and finished the last circle, Saffron flying straight above him.

Saffron threw another ball of fire but this one Ranma didn't dodge.

Ranma threw a sloppy uppercut.

The fireballs that were moving towards Ranma flickered out of existence as a huge tornado erupted around Ranma.

The tornado began to toss the godling around, but it didn't really do any damage. Ranma could hear the angry yell of Saffron as he tried to regain his bearing.

The screams of anger turned into screams of pain as Ranma unleashed hundreds of ki-loaded vacuum blades into the tornado.

"Rising Dragon Ascension Revised, Demon God Claw Storm." He yelled and poured every bit of his ki into the attack.

He directed one of the ki blades towards the spring, the spring broke and the water flooded down the hill and over Akane. The healing water began refill the girls ki reserves.

Ranma smiled as he could feel Akane's ki begin to stabilize, he then slumped to the ground.

The ki blades tore Saffron's body apart. The broken body of what was once the proud ruler of Phoenix Mountain falling limply to the ground. His attack began to fade and soon it was calm once again.

He just lay on the ground and breathed raggedly, he had used all his ki in that move. He was closing his eyes. His body was feeling heavy and cold, he needed to rest. With the last of his power he opened his eyes to make sure Saffron really was defeated.

He looked over to were Saffron's body was lying and could see that it had caught fire. Soon the only thing left was a pile of ash.

He began to close his eyes when he could feel an immense energy build-up. He opened his eyes again and could see that a ball of light was hovering over the pile of ash some few meters away.

It became brighter and brighter and soon he had to close his eyes not to become blind. The ball of light exploded and he could feel the energy slam into him and toss him up in the air. He didn't have the energy to move so he slammed into a nearby rock and slumped into a sitting position.

He could see that a huge crater had appeared in the ground where Saffron's body had been lying. The crater was a good fifty metres across and at least thirty metres deep

He stood up on shakily legs and began to move towards the crater. Somehow Saffron had survived and Ranma would be damned if he lost to him, Akane couldn't defend herself in her current state.

He stood on the edge of the crater and then began to slide down towards the bottom. Ranma scanned the landscape for any sign of Saffron.

At the bottom he found a small child, the reincarnated form of Saffron. Now he had the chance in killing the Phoenix, he would only have to strike once and he would be dead, gone forever.

But Ranma wasn't one to kill in cold blood. He lowered his fist, turned around and then walked away, slowly climbing the walls of the crater.

He could hear flapping of wings and turned around to see Kiima fly away with the infant.

He limped towards the form of Akane and could see that she had regained some of her colour and had a deep stabile breathing.

He dropped next to her and fell unconscious.

He awoke some time later, night had fallen. He looked around and could spot Akane standing with her back against him. Ranma stood up on wobbly legs and began to walk towards her.

He laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Ranma..." She said softly.

"Y..yes?" He asked with a tired voice.

She turned around, and stabbed him in the chest with a dagger. He just looked shocked at the weapon sticking out of his chest and then looked at Akane. Her face had a manical grin on it. He slumped backwards to the ground and could see that everyone he knew from his time in Nerima standing around him.

As one they began to attack him, stabbing and ripping him apart.

He jolted awake, looking on the unfamiliar surrounding. It was a hospital ward and both to his left and to his right he could see empty beds. The lights were of and when he looked outside he could see the moon.

He tried to move but failed, a sharp pain in his neck and chest alerting him to hi wounds. He gritted his teeth at the pain but then relaxed as it didn't to anything to stop it.

He was restless, he needed to get to Victoria to make sure she was okay, but right know he couldn't move an inch. He began to pour unbelievable amounts of ki into his wounds to increase his healing. His ki reserves had returned to normal after the sleep, but the wounds where still there.

Having godlike ki reserves sure had its advantages.

He could feel as the muscle and tissue began to knit itself back together, but it would still take some time before it would be fully healed. He closed his eyes and decided to rest for a while.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

M was sitting behind her desk and doing paper-work as usual when her secretary opened the door and stepped inside. She was holding a folder in her right hand and she looked a little bothered by something.

"The final check-up about Ranma Saotome just arrived from the Tokyo branch of the JSDF- Intelligence. The content of the report is... unexpected, and I thought it would be best if you read it." She said and handed her the report.

M looked puzzled, usually the report would be sent to the employer's office to make sure it was okay and not to M personally. On the other hand Ranma was one of the most unusual trainees she had ever encountered, being like a sponge when it comes to learning new things, so there was surely something in his past that could gain her attention.

"And why is that?" She said and opened the report, it was a good hundred pages long.

"Well when the JSDF-intelligence looked up his family the found almost no trace of his father... That's the reason this report took so long to get here. It took some time but they where finally able to find out who the father was..." The secretary looked mildly nervous.

M only nodded and took a sip from her cup of coffee.

"Well it appears that his father is...is a certain James Bond." She said and fidgeted nervously.

M just spit out her coffee over the entire desk.

"WHAT!? You mean there are two of them?" She yelled and stood up.

"It appears that he was adopted by a Genma Saotome as a small child."

"Good god, not another one." She said more to herself then the secretary, obviously not listening to her.

M sat back down in her chair and groaned.

007 was her best agent, but also her most troublesome one. He had gained a habit of blowing things up... expensive things. And when she thought back on how Ranma was, she couldn't help but see a certain resemblance, Ranma was almost an exact copy of James but with Asian eyes.

She couldn't understand how she didn't figure it out sooner, it was just so obvious. The resemblance wasn't just physical, when she thought back on it James and Ranma kind of acted the same. Ranma acted almost exactly as James had done twenty years ago when he had started working here.

Then another thought hit her, Ranma was almost exactly like his father but with one big difference... not even James had been through as much action during his first six months as Ranma had.

"You are completely sure?" She said, and hoped it wasn't true. She didn't dare to think how he would be when he began active duty...

"Yes, I am sure. Commander Bond is Ranma's father."

"But how?" M asked and looked totally defeated.

"Do you remember a Nodoka Takeda van Hellsing? She worked in the translation department, used to be a lot in Tokyo." The secretary asked.

"Don't think so... wait, wasn't she the one that got caught in that Yakuza incident?"

"Yes, and it appeared that she meet Bond during that incident. That was before he became a 00. In either case when he became a 00 three years later Nodoka returned to Japan and settled down. She married a man named Genma Saotome and five months later her child was born. In the official records Genma was Ranma's father but the date of birth didn't match with the time off when she meet Genma, so the JSDF trailed back and found out that Bond was Ranma's father"

M just groaned again, Ranma was just too much like James... and if he brought even more mayhem than James. She just shuddered at the thought.

"And what about Ranma?"

"Well nothing strange about his first six years, but after that he was travelling a lot for over ten years. He stopped in a district of Tokyo called Nerima, a little more then two and a half years ago and stayed there until he moved to London. During his stay in Nerima he had numerous strange encounters.

"Encounters?" M asked.

"Mostly martial arts battles, and he also caused major property damage but was always cleared by the authorities because of the fact that it mostly was necessary to help other people. And it seems he had... multiple girls chasing after him."

M's eye twitched violently.

"That proves it, Ranma is a Bond alright." M said and grumbled. James and his "encounters" with women where famous by now, and if Ranma was anything like his father in that aspect as well...

"May God have mercy upon all the women in England that has caught his interest."

Only one person seemed to get the Lords protection and sneezed as M said that, and that was Hellsing's fledgling vampire. There is irony there somewhere.

"And neither James nor Ranma seems to know who the other is." M said and looked up on the roof.

Her secretary was still standing before her desk.

"Where is Mr Saotome now?" M asked.

"He has one week's vacation, but should I call him to the bureau?" The secretary asked.

"No, it isn't an emergency." M said.

The secretary nodded and was about to walk down out the door as she remembered something else.

She walked up to M's desk and pointed towards the folder.

"There are some photos in the back, you should probably take a look." She said.

M did just that and looked over the photos of a black haired, pigtailed man in red Chinese silk shirt. Then among the last photos was one of a redheaded pigtailed girl in the same Chinese silk shirt.

She was short and petite and maybe a year or so younger then Ranma. She had a familiar face, looking a lot like a younger sister to Ranma.

"Who is this girl?" M asked and pointed to the photo.

"That was one thing I really thought was strange, when I read the report it didn't mention her by name once, and when I called up the JSDF they told me to ask Ranma, we wouldn't believe it otherwise."

M nodded, Ranma had gone from a strange person to a mysterious person, but when she thought about the fact that he was 007's son she could understand it. Ranma´s family was a strange one.

M was right, but little did she know that most of the strangeness didn't come from James side of the family.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So let me get this straight." Integra said and began to massage her temples.

"You ran into a band of ghouls armed with weapons loaded with silver."

Victoria nodded and sniffled a little, she was very close to breaking down again.

"After you where hit and incapacitated by the silver in the ghouls weapons, a normal human single-handedly defeated a group of more then a hundred ghouls AND one vampire?

Once again Victoria nodded and sniffled a bit. She had depended a lot on Ranma, and she could with all honesty say she cared about him a lot.

"And after taking numerous bullets he was able to walk over to you and carry you out of the alley. There he was attacked and stabbed in the neck by a lone remaining ghoul."

And once again Victoria nodded. She didn't dare to talk, she knew that her voice would crack up in seconds.

"And how do you know this man?" Integra said.

"I.. us.. usually met him on... my nights off." She said and could barely conceal a sobb.

Integra's face softened a little.

"We could go to the infirmary and se how he does. I am interested in meeting him." Integra said and motioned to the door.

Victoria looked up.

"You mean he is alive? But how? The wounds..." She trailed off.

Integra blinked, now she finally understood why the vampire seemed so down.

"As I understand he was in pretty bad shape but not dead when they brought him here. Should we go see how he is feeling?" Integra said. She was quite curious on how a human was able to defeat so many ghouls and a vampire.

Victoria nodded and followed Integra as she walked out of the door. They moved out of the mansion and walked the path leading to Hellsing's own infirmary. As they entered the building they were greeted by one of the doctors working there.

"How is he?" Victoria asked worriedly.

The doctor shifted his attention from Integra to Victoria.

"You probably mean the survivor from last night's attack." He said

"Yes, how is he doing?" Integra asked.

"He was hit with eight bullets, three in his left shoulder, four in his stomach and on in his chest. They didn't hit any vital organs, but did cause major blood loss. Then there was the wound on his neck. The blade missed a main artery with 2 millimetres." He said and began to walk down the corridor followed by Victoria and Integra.

"Is he going to make it?" Victoria asked worriedly.

"I can't say with one hundred percent accuracy but he seems strong and I think he may make it. You should know that he was very lucky, most of those bullets missed vital organs with only millimetres to spare." The doctor said.

"Can I see him?" Victoria asked.

"I can't see why not, as long as you not disturb him." The doctor answered and opened the door leading to Ranma´s room.

As they entered Victoria could see Ranma lying on a bed motionless, only the steady rise and fall of his chest showing that he was still alive. He was linked up to some equipment monitoring his vital signs.

She sat down on a chair next to the bed and took a hold on his hand.

"How are you felling?" She said softly.

He didn't answer.

"Please be alright. Please get better." She said in a carrying voice.

She could see as his lips moved a little but she couldn't hear anything.

"Did he say something?" Integra asked.

Victoria was shocked as Ranma opened an eye and then spoke so everyone could hear.

"I said I'm felling okay if you don't count the fact that my head hurts like someone hit me with a bloody sledge hammer." He said softly and opened both eyes.

"Ran.. Ranma!" She yelled.

Integra's left eye twitched. It couldn't be... it just couldn't be.

He rubbed his throat with the hand Ceres wasn't holding onto tightly.

"I am more worried about you then me, Ceres." He said and looked her up and down after any signs of bandages.

"Don't worry, I'm fine." She said and squeezed his hand a little in comfort, still a little shocked at Ranma´s revival.

Ranma nodded a little and closed his eyes and sighed in relief.

"Thank God for that." He whispered.

Victoria could only smile happily at Ranma´s antics. She had thought she had lost him back in the alley, but then found out he was still alive.

Victoria leaned down and gave him a long soft hug, and she snivelled a little as she buried her face into his chest.

"You don't dare to do that again Ranma. I thought you died." She said and sobbed a bit.

"Shh...shh. It's okay, it will need more than those small scratches to do me in." He said and brushed her hair softly.

They stayed like that for some time, Ranma stroking her hair and making soothing noises and Ceres crying into his chest.

The doctor deciding that they had bothered the patient enough coughed into his hand to gain the others attention.

"We should probably leave now, it is getting late." He said and motioned towards the door.

"Do get well soon." Ceres whispered into his ear.

Integra and Ceres nodded and began to walk out the room.

Ranma blinked then began to move, trying to get out of the bed.

"You should lie back down, your body needs the rest." He said in a warning voice. He was surprised that he was awake and even more surprised that he was moving around.

Ranma just groaned and a loud rumbling noise was heard.

"Right now the only thing my body needs is food. Lots of food. Do you have any idea how hungry you get after healing those wounds?"

"Please sir lie down, I don't want you to aggravate the wounds. Once your wounds have healed sufficiently you can eat real food. For now you have to be satisfied with the liquid nutrition's. We will change your bandage tomorrow, and if you are healed enough we might see about the food."

Ranma´s left eye twitched violently and Ceres couldn't help but think he looked like someone she should know. Ranma looked displeased but nodded in affirmative.

The doctor and Integra walked outside and Ceres followed shortly after giving Ranma a quick peck on the cheek

Ranma blinked and brought up a hand to his face where Ceres had kissed him.

He smiled and closed his eyes and drifted to sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

Nabiki sighed as she dropped down onto her bed. Ranma´s absence had been hell to the middle Tendo daughter, and not because she missed him but because he had cost her a fortune. Her schemes had all in some included Ranma, and now that she was gone she couldn't get enough money in the ways she used before Ranma arrived in Nerima.

After she didn't find a trace of him in 4 months she had realised Ranma wouldn't come back and had cancelled the search reluctantly.

But she promised herself that when Ranma came back, he would regret the day he crossed Nabiki Tendo's path. She had checked up the contracts that her father and Genma Saotome had made with a lawyer and they would hold in court.

Nabiki smiled a evil smile, the contract would make it impossible for him to leave Nerima without risking severe consequences, and he would be forced to comply to her schemes or risk Nabiki dragging him before court.

Nabiki looked out the window and could see that Akane was smashing bricks inside the dojo. The youngest Tendo daughters temper had just gotten worse and worse for every day that went by.

Nabik knew that Akane put up a front and pretended that she hated Ranma, but deep down she cared for him.

That may be true, but the reason Akane was mad was that since Ranma's appearance over two years ago she had gone from being the best martial artist around to being one of the worst.

Even though she would never admit it she loved to be in the spotlight. But when Ranma arrived he had taken her place. Even though he had been gone for almost half a year Ranma was still the number one topic.

Akane growled a little and smashed another brick.

She couldn't believe why everyone still talked about that pervert, he wasn't even a real martial artist as he had run away from his obligations. He had only caused trouble and always had interfered with her fights.

Once he returned she would show him how a real martial artist fought and then he would be back as her fiancée so she could make sure he didn't do anything perverted.

Ranma had been given to her, and she was to prideful and stubborn to let him go. She would be damned if she let one of the others get their hands on him. To Akane it was a competition, and she was determined to win, if she had any feelings for the boy wasn't important. Once he returned she would show that pervert why he shouldn't make her mad.

Nabiki sighed and threw herself on her bed.

Her only source of income now was from the Nerima Wrecking Crew who paid her regularly for any information on Ranma.

The Amazons were blaming Akane for Ranma´s absence, and Shampoo had attacked Akane in full Amazon battle garb the other day. Only Nabiki's threat to call the police had stopped the furious Amazon from cutting her sister apart. Then Akane had been furious on her for stopping her fight, but Akane forgot that Ranma wasn't here anymore to pull her bacon out of the fire.

And talking about bacon, Ryoga he had been seen only periodically, travelling and searching after Ranma. The few times Nabiki had seen him he had been furious, Nabiki thought that that he was becoming more and more like Kuno, obsessed with Ranma.

Both Kuno siblings had sworn to defeat the foul magician Ranma/Pigtailed girl for taking away their beloved Pigtailed girl/Ranma. Both had become insane...more insane and was paying Nabiki for any information on Ranma´s whereabouts.

Ukyo was the only one who wasn't paying her for information. She had cried at the loss of Ranma and had then challenged Akane to a duel of honour. In this Nabiki didn't intervene, Ukyo was perhaps mad at Akane but she wouldn't kill her, and it would be a good lesson for Akane. The fight had been set on a Saturday on the soccer-field behind the school.

Naturally Ukyo had won over Akane in quite a skilful, and painful way, but Akane had told everyone that Ukyo must have cheated. So Akane challenged Ukyo to another duel, with the same result, and then another and then another. So it continued, and each time Akane had said that Ukyo had cheated in some way, beginning before the signal even when it was Akane who attacked first.

Ukyo had finally stopped accepting Akane's challenges and didn't care about the short tempered girl's taunts.

After three months and no sign of Ranma Ukyo knew he wouldn't return. She had gotten a letter from her father who wanted her to come home, apparently he had heard that Ranma wasn't part of the Saotome clan anymore and the matter of honour was fulfilled.

One week later Ukyo had returned, but she had changed, she was wearing a normal girls school uniform clothes instead of the boy school uniform she normally was wearing. Nabiki had found out that it was Nodoka Saotome who had told the Kuonji patriarch about Ranma leaving the clan.

As for the Saotome matriarch, she seemed not to be concerned by her son's absence, she lived her life as if nothing was wrong. The only one who she talked to, except for Kasumi, was Ukyo.

In the beginning of the search for Ranma, Nabiki had been monitoring Nodoka because she thought she would lead him to Ranma. She was greatly disappointed when she didn't get one single trail.

As for Doc Tofu he had finally gotten the nerve to ask Kasumi out. He had stuttered and his glasses had fogged over numerous times, but in the end he had managed to do it.

That was one of the few good news from the entire last six months.

Nabiki cursed Ranma's absence and for the hundredth time that day wondered where he was.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The doctor was slowly removing the bandage around Ranma´s neck, careful not to reopen the wound. As the piece of cloth fell to the ground the doctor and could only watch with wide eyes. The wound was gone, and so were the stitches.

Ceres and Integra had returned after their brief visit yesterday, and this time Walter was with them.

The doctor began to open the bandage across his chest, and there to the wounds and stitches were gone. The bandage lying on the ground was caked with dried blood.

Ranma scratched his neck and chest absentmindedly.

"See, good as new." He said and patted his chest.

That wasn't completely true, there was still red marks where the wounds once had been, but that was the only trace of any of the life threatening wounds he had arrived with.

"How? What? When?" The doctor asked stupefied. Sure he had seen Victoria heal her injuries on one or two occasions but she was a vampire... Ranma was a human, all the tests had proved it, just a normal human, no vampire and no regenerator.

"I always have been a fast healer, and I have been training a lot if martial arts." He said with a shrug.

He picked up the simple white tee-shirt lying next to his bed on a chair and put it on. It had bullet holes in numerous places but it was clean. He jumped out of the bed gracefully and began to do some stretching to get the kinks out of his muscles.

Victoria smiled and then tackled him to the floor in a bone crushing hug.

"Ouch, that hurt." Ranma said as he put his arms around Victoria and stood up, holding Victoria in the classical damsel in distress position.

"Sorry." She said and hugged Ranma closer.

"No harm done." He said and sat back down on the bed with Victoria in his embrace.

He looked out the window, it was late evening. He was thankful that nothing happened to her.

"I am sorry I dragged you into this." He said to her.

"Into what?" She asked confused.

"Into my crazy life." He said and sighed.

"What are you talking about?" She asked, she couldn't understand what he was meaning.

"Somehow trouble always seems to follow me wherever I go." He said and looked her straight into her eyes.

Ceres didn't answer, she was content just holding Ranma.

They sat like this for some time, until Integra decided to ask the question she had been curious about the entire time.

"How did you do that?" She asked.

"Do what?" He asked and looked up from Ceres to meet Integra's blue eyes.

"Fight them off." She answered.

Ranma began to think about what to say.

"I've trained in martial arts most of my life." He said simply.

Integra wasn't satisfied with the answer, it didn't matter how good martial artist you where, you would still lose against a vampire.

"What exactly were those things? I have never seen anything like them. They just... Were just ..." He said but couldn't finish his sentence. How did you explain to a normal person that those creatures auras where completely wrong.

Integra looked on him and thought about what she would do and say. There weren't survivors from ghoul-attacks very often... when she thought about it there had never been a single one before. But now there was one, and more importantly one who could fight them, but still didn't have the smallest clue on what they where.

And another fact that bothered her was that he had been using silver weapons. If he didn't know about vampires then why the hell was he carrying weapons made of silver? And how the hell could he to it? It wasn't exactly the easiest thing to conceal two swords and over a dozen daggers.

"I will explain that latter. First it would be best if we introduce each other, I am Sir Integra van Hellsing." She said and looked on the man holding Hellsing resident fledgling vampire.

"Van Hellsing? Why does that sound familiar?" Well my name is Ranma Saotome..."

A violent twitch in Integra's left eye showed that she wasn't happy about something.

"Did you say "Saotome"?" She asked a little worriedly.

"Yes... what did Genma do this time?" Ranma asked and put his head in his hands. He was used to this reaction when he revealed his name from his time in Nerima.

Integra groaned, but didn't understand the Genma comment.

"You don't happen to know a certain Nodoka Saotome, do you?" She said and hoped that she got a negative in answer.

"You know mom?" He said and looked on her with wide eyes.

"Yes, I know Nodoka." She said and groaned again. That explained the silver weapons.

This wasn't her day. Her nephew had a run in with a vampire and a band of ghouls, he had taken care of them quite effectively, but had gotten wounded in the progress. She definitely couldn't lie to him, he would found out sooner or latter. And worse... Nodoka would kill her if she ever found out that a vampire had wounded her son.

"Wait... van Hellsing? But that means you are....Oh bloody hell." He said and groaned in a very Integraish fashion.

Both Walter and Ceres looked on at the conversation in confusion, understanding nothing of it.

"Well, it would be best if we return to my office. I have the feeling that this is going to be a long talk." Integra said and sighed.

Ranma only nodded and stood up. Ceres yelped in surprise, but Ranma still had a strong grip on the vampire.

They left after Ranma thanked the doctor and walked towards the mansion. At the massive oak doors leading to her office Integra stopped and turned around towards them.

"I wish to speak with you alone." She said in a commanding voice.

Ranma nodded and let go of Victoria.

"Walter would you please bring us some tea."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

Integra was sitting behind her desk, thinking on how she should begin this.

"So you are Nodoka Takeda Saotome's son?" She asked just to make sure. She didn't add van Hellsing to her name, because he hadn't recognised it immediately when she presented herself.

"Yepp." He answered.

"Do you know who I am?" She said and looked at the youth interestedly.

"As I understand it you are Integra van Hellsing, my mom's younger sister." He said and leaned back in his chair.

Integra only nodded.

"Did Nodoka explain anything about our family? What we do?" She asked.

"No, she just said that if I wanted to know more about my family I should seek you up." He answered with shrug.

"She didn't tell you anything?"

Ranma just shook his head in negative.

"And why haven't you tried to find me earlier, in a letter from Nodoka she said you have been in London for a good six months?" She asked again.

"To be honest I had almost totally forgot about it, I have had a lot to do lately." He said in an excusing voice.

Integra sighed and prepared to drop the bomb on him. She decided to see if she could ease the shock a little.

"Just one more question before I will explain exactly what our family are doing exactly. Do you think magic may exist?"

Ranma just blinked and then thought back on his life.

Jusenkyo, check.

Gender changing curse, check.

Mirrors with time travelling capabilities, check.

Love potions/spells/pills, check

Evil cat spirits shudder, double check.

This could take some time...

He scratched his neck absentmindedly.

"Well I am a bit superstitious, so I would say yes, I believe in magic." He said uncertainly.

Integra just sighed, she would soon find out how much he would be willing to believe. The fact that he had seen them up close would maybe help her make him understand a little easier.

"Well, the things you met in the alley they were something called ghouls, undead beings who do nothing more then follow every command of the vampire who spawned them." Integra said and looked closely for the reaction she was sure would come.

Ranma looked surprised for a second but then only nodded in understanding. He didn't show any sign of disbelief, or scepticism.

"That would definitely explain a few things." He said more to himself then Integra.

"You believe me?" She asked and raised an eyebrow. She was surprised he had neither declared her a mad woman nor blankly denied it.

"Why shouldn't I? That was the best explanation I have heard yet, well... it's the only explanation I have heard yet, but that's besides the point." He said a little sheepishly.

"Well, you seemed to take the fact that magic exists quite good..." She said and trailed off.

"Well, then I will explain in detail what exactly our family legacy is. As you might understand there is such things as ghouls and vampires, and they are a threat to all humans, killing only for the pleasure of killing.

That's why the royal house created the Royal Order of Protestant Knights, which had been lead by the Noble house van Hellsing's, since the beginning. Our work is to protect England and the crown against the legions of the undead." She said and was still looking for any signs of disbelief.

"So our family are some kind of knights?" He said and looked at Integra.

"Yes, every member of the Hellsing family that has fought the undead has been a Knight of the round table, but it would be more accurately to call us vampire-hunters." She said and looked on what could become the future heir to the Hellsing's institute.

Ranma nodded in understanding.

"Ranma... your mother sent you here for me to explain about our family. If what you told me was true then you didn't know anything about the Hellsing legacy. But still you don't react to surprised, care to explain why?"

Ranma looked a little uncomfortable, he didn't really want to tell her everything about his life now, his agent training had made him a little bit conscious about handing out information. But in this case he could do an exception.

"Well... to be honest I didn't know that it existed vampires, but I have had numerous encounters with magic during the last two years."

Integra looked on the young man with a flat stare.

"Guess it's hard to believe for someone who hasn't seen it themselves." He said uncomfortably.

"So what kind of magic are we talking about." Integra asked, she began to think the boy to be insane.

"Get me a cup of cold and a cup of warm water and I will show you."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxx

Walter exited Integra's and could see Ceres who sitting on a bench next to the door. She was looking at the door whit dread, and he could understand why, if Integra told him about the existence of vampires he would know what she was.

"What where they doing?" She asked with an unsteady voice.

"They where drinking tea. As for their conversation they seemed to talk about the Hellsing institute." He answered and the vampire slumped down a little.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxx

Integra looked a little shocked as he told her his story. He left out most of the things except the Jusenkyo curse, but she still looked a little unbelievingly on him.

"Now I understand why you seemed so familiar with the thought of magic." She said.

"Well, what can I say, chaos seems to follow me." He said with a shrug.

Integra nodded and then looked thoughtful for a moment.

"But could you please explain how you could defeat all those ghouls and vampires? What you did most of the best hunters wouldn't be able to do." She said and looked on him sternly.

"Well as I said, I was usually involved in some major fighting back in Nerima. One thing you have to understand is that they weren't the most normal of people. One of my rivals could blow apart solid rocks with one blow, another used something called hidden weapons to conceal hundreds of blades on him, and yet another could chop down trees with a wooden sword. And when you have all of them after your blood you get quite good in fighting." He said and scratched his neck.

Integra blinked and then nodded.

"The only real reason they got me so banged up was because they had guns and hit me in the beginning of the fight. I can't dodge bullets..." He said.

"_Completely yet."_ He mentally added. After the first time he had encountered armed opponents in the training gym back at the academy he had stepped up his speed training. It had helped a little when he had been in that industry complex in Russia, but he wasn't able to dodge them quite yet. He could see the bullets as they were fired but he wasn't fast enough to dodge one fired on him.

He had managed to predict if one would shoot and dodge before firing, but he was getting closer and closer to being able to dodge them completely. The incident in the alley had convinced him to step up his training another notch or three. That was a martial artists worst fear, to face an opponent armed with fire-arms, but he had decided that he had to counter that weakness.

He was working on a ki techniques that would allow him those kinds of speeds, using the katchu-tenchi-amaguriken but on his entire body instead of just his hands, but the last time he had tried he had drained almost all his ki.

"You seem to have lived an interesting life." She said.

"You could say that... I will have to tell you about it sometimes, it would take to long to tell now." He said and skilfully avoided the question.

"So can you tell me a little more about Hellsing? How you work and so on? Isn't it expensive to have an organisation like this?"

"Well we usually have between five to ten teams of highly trained personnel, coming mostly from SAS and other military organisations. Depending on the situation we send different amounts of men, or in some cases when the situation is looking really grim our special operative."

"Special operative?" Ranma asked.

"We will probably talk about him later. As for the question about money, the Hellsing family have always had a generous amount of money in our treasury, and during the years careful planning and foretelling has made us invest in good companies. We bought stocks in both Microsoft and in Apple when they where just small companies, and together with a small donation from the British government we have no concerns about money.

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Ceres was praying to whatever god/deity/divine being that listened that Integra didn't tell him she was a vampire. She held no illusion he would never want to see her again if he knew, and that made her feel a cold dread in her stomach.

Chaos, who was keeping an eye on his avatar, was the only divine who heard the prayer said close by. After a second he decided NOT to do as she prayed. Using his almighty powers he changed a small thread in the cosmic weave.

He cackled evilly.

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"You must understand that we could not possibly hope to defeat some of the creatures we have encountered, so Hellsing needed something that could even the odds. That was the special operative, or operatives it is now, I was talking about earlier..." She said but was interrupted by a knock on the door.

Walter entered carrying another tray of tea. He placed it on her desk, bowed and left.

She knew she needed to tell him what Victoria was, he would find it out sooner or later.

"We couldn't fight some of them, so we had to use somewhat un-orthodox means to fight. Among them are the Hellsing institute's resident vampire Ceres Victoria..."She said and trailed off.

The door behind Walter closed.

Ranma's eyes widened in shock, he couldn't believe what Integra had told him.

"Vic...Victoria is a vampire?" He said disbelievingly as he managed to compose himself.

"Yes, she was turned a little over six months ago." Integra said.

Ranma nodded, but you could see that he wasn't listening any longer he was in too deep thought.

How was that possible, Ceres wasn't anything like the creatures he had encountered in the alley. She was a kind, sweet and loveable person, who didn't demand anything from anyone, who always cheered people up. That she was a creature of the night just seemed so wrong.

But then again he wasn't one to talk, he himself had a gender changing curse that made everyone think him a pervert.

"Can we continue this talk later I have something to do." He said and stood up.

Integra looked on her nephew and then nodded.

"I think it would be best. It's late and you could use some rest."

Ranma walked out the door still thinking what he should do.

As Ranma left Integra reached for the phone and dialled a number she rarely used. After three signals someone picked up the phone.

"Hello?" A voice asked politely.

"Your majesty you should probably know that we had an incident in which another member of the Hellsing family got involved."

"Another member?" The voice asked politely.

"Yes, the son of my older sister. He got involved in a fight with a vampire and some ghouls without knowing about his heritage." She said and rubbed her temple with the hand not holding the phone.

"I am sorry for your loss." She could hear the Queen say.

"Don't be, he is alive and well." Integra said.

"But..." The Queen said and trailed off.

"It is a long story, better suited to be told during our next meeting, you majesty." Integra said.

"Very well... but during our next meeting you have to introduce me to this young van Hellsing." She said.

"Very well."

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Ranma walked out the door and looked down the corridor both to the right and to the left for any sign of Ceres, but couldn't find a trace of the vampire.

He began to walk down the corridor to the left in search of her, and met Walter in the middle of it.

"Excuse me? You don't happen to know where Victoria is?" He asked the aged man.

Walter looked thoughtful for a moment.

"She walked down that corridor a couple of minutes ago, she may be heading for her room in the basement. But you maybe want to take a look on the balcony at the far end, she usually sit there when she need to think things over." He said and pointed down the hall.

"Thanks" Ranma said and walked fast down the hall.

He walked past numerous closed balcony doors and stopped by the one at the stair case. It was opened only a bit and the draping covering it moved slowly in the cold night wind.

He parted it to the side and looked out the open door. Ceres was sitting with her back against the wall and she was looking at the stars.

"Ceres?" He asked uncertainly.

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Ceres walked down the hall, a cold lump forming in her stomach. Ranma finally knew what she was and she decided to go out of his way. She could manage that the others looked on her in fear, but just even the thought of Ranma moving away with fear in his eyes from her made the cold lump in her stomach grow bigger.

She opened the balcony door silently and stepped out in the cool night air. Without making a sound she moved across the balcony and sat down on a marble bench. She could felt the cold from it even through her clothes, but she didn't care.

Once again she was alone, no human would accept a relationship with a vampire. She could feel a stab of pain in her chest at the loss of Ranma, but this time she hadn't lost him to death, but this time she had lost him because of her own fault. It hurt more then anything she had ever felt before, more then the time she had been shot in Cheddar church by Alucard, more then the time she had been stabbed in the neck by Paladin Alexander Anderson, and more then the time she had been shoot by silver bullets not even a day ago.

It hurt her more then those things combined, she could feel a little happiness that Ranma was alive, but it was fairly overshadowed by her feeling of loneliness. She wondered how she would manage without Ranma... During the last day she had understood truly how much she had depended on him.

He was a constant in a sea of chaos.

He gave her the feeling of being cared for, he treated with nothing less then absolute respect.

And most importantly he made her feel an emotion she thought would have died in Cheedar church...love. Ceres didn't lie to herself, she truly loved him.

But now Ceres just hoped Ranma didn't hate her to much.

"Ceres?" A voice asked from her right. She turned her head and could see Ranma standing in the door opening.

Ranma could see her edge away a little.

"Please leave..." She said weakly.

"Why?" He asked in confusion.

"I am a monster, just leave me please." She said, her voice still sounding weak.

"Why are you saying things like that? You are not a monster" He said and stepped up towards her.

She edged away.

"Please just leave... I know you can't be with someone like me." She said and didn't look at his face.

"I am a monster, a cold-hearted, merciless monster." She said and could barely conceal a sob.

She couldn't believe why he wasn't moving away in fright.

"No you are not. You are the most beautiful, caring and compassionate woman I have ever met." He said without a hint of lying or hesitation and sat down next to her.

She was still not looking at him.

"Just leave please... I need to be alone." She sobbed.

A clear-crystal tear travelled down her cheek. Ranma maybe had changed and learned a lot during his stay in London but on one fundamental point he hadn't changed one bit.

He absolutely hated to see a girl cry, and if he could he always tried to help.

He placed an arm around her shoulder and one on the bend of her knee and lifted her up and hugged her tightly. She tried to push him away, but he had a firm grip on the crying vampire.

He looked on the face of the beautiful woman and understood that she hadn't been playing or acting when he was around her. She was just a normal girl who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He hugged her tightly and remembered how he almost had lost her. The pain he had felt as he had seen her get hit was almost unbearable, without noticing it she had become such an important part of his live, he would rather give away his breathing then her. A small tear ran down his cheek as he remembered the fear he had felt not being able to protect her, the fear of those things getting their hands on her.

"Please, don't hate me." She said weakly.

"I don't, I promise." He answered truthfully.

"Why? I lied to you, I hid the fact that I am a vampire." She asked, her voice quivering. She was still struggling a little to get free.

"You are not the only one who has secrets Ceres." He said softly into her ear.

She didn't answer.

"Please don't hate me." She said again.

Ranma looked on the vampire and sighed. He wondered how he should make Ceres understand that he didn't care that she was a vampire. He thought back on his time in Nerima.

There the girls had treated him like some kind of prize to be won, they hadn't cared about how he felt, but Ceres... She was the complete opposite, she was sweet, caring, she listened to him, she was everything he could ever wish for and more. He understood then that he cared for her more then he had cared for any of the girls in Nerima.

He lifted her face so they could look into each others eyes, blue sapphires meting crimson rubies. Using his thumb he whipped away her crystal tears, her eyes were red and puffy.

She was looking afraid, unsure and lost, and then he understood that he was feeling the same. But it wasn't because she was a vampire but because he never had been good when talking about emotions. He decided, as he usually did, to let his actions talk for him. But first he decided that they should be even about their secrets, he knew that she was a vampire and she should know that he was cursed.

"I am cursed Ceres, I was cursed by some magical springs in China." He said softly into her ear.

He then crossed the small distance between their faces and kissed her on her lips tenderly. He could feel her stop struggling and see her eyes widen in shock. It was their first real kiss, and it had been given when they didn't have any secrets from each other. And for Ranma it was the first kiss he had given anyone of his own free will.

He could see that she closed her eyes and tears come forth, but this time it was tears of happiness and relief. His fingers were slowly trailing her cheek.

He prodded her teeth with his tongue and could feel her elongated canines. He truly didn't care about the fact that she was a vampire. After a long moment they broke the kiss, both blushing and breathing heavily.

He leaned towards her.

"I love you Ceres." He whispered softly into her ear, and nuzzled her cheek. It had taken all his willpower to say those four words, but he wasn't lying, he truly loved her.

"Thank you." She said and sighed in relief.

"No, thank you." He said and brushed her hair softly.

Victoria only nodded and hugged him tightly so to not let him leave her. During the last 48 hours she had lost the love of her life to a band of ghouls only to have him resurrect and once again lose him. This was the second time she had gotten him back and now she wouldn't do the same mistake like the last time.

She would hold on to him no matter what.

"Please don't leave me." She said.

"I won't, I promise." He answered.

Another tear left Ranma´s eye, he was just happy that Victoria was fine. He leaned back against the wall while hugging Ceres.

He was content just sitting there and so was Ceres. After some time had passed, he couldn't tell how long, he could feel that Ceres grip on him had loosened just a little. Looking down on her face he could see that she was asleep. He brushed a stray strand of strawberry blonde hair away from her face.

Ranma smiled a little at how innocent she looked as she slept, and to him it was the final confirmation that she wasn't the monster she told him she was. She smiled a little in her sleep and one of her fangs was shown. Ranma couldn't help but think that it made her look cute.

"Beautiful." He whispered and leaned down and kissed her tenderly.

Ceres snuggled closer in her sleep and Ranma couldn't help but hug her tightly.

Ranma could see the fake dawn and knew it wouldn't be long before the sun would rise. Knowing that vampires couldn't stand the sun he lifted her up carefully not to awaken her and walked into the mansion.

The butler he had talked too had said that her room was in the basement, so he walked down the stairs.

Finally finding the stairs to the cellar he quickly and stealthily made his way through the stone corridor. The lights where out, but his atoned senses allowed him not to walk into a wall or such. He tried every door he came upon but all where looked except one in the far end. Pushing the door open with his shoulder he found out that the light was on.

He looked around the room and could see the closed coffin in one corner. Deciding that it by logic only could be her room he stepped inside.

With a swift motion of his foot he closed the door behind him. Not understanding how to open the coffin he looked around the room and found that the only other piece of furniture was some chairs, a table, a couch and one chest of drawers.

He put Ceres down on the couch and walked over to the bureau and opened it. Finding what he was looking for, a blanket, he walked back to the couch and lifted Ceres up. As soon as he picked her up she took a firm grip around his chest. Ranma looked down and could see that she was sleeping.

He laid down on the couch with Ceres on his chest and then covered both of them with the blanket. He kissed her forehead softly and then leaned his head back and fell asleep, still holding onto Ceres.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Alucard was pacing slowly around his room. He didn't know what he should tell Integra, he didn't know what had happened to the Police-girl himself. The only thing he knew was that she was dead and he would have to tell Integra that soon.

Being an over half a millennia old vampire there was few things he feared, but he still felt uncomfortable when he thought about the little discussion he would have with Integra. Being the one that turned Ceres into a vampire he knew that he was his responsibility to make sure she was safe. Even though the vampires didn't have any kind of laws their was some unwritten rules among the older and more powerful vampires on how to act, not something the trash he had been dealing with lately would know anything about.

One of these rules was that it was the master vampires responsibility to see to that his fledglings was trained in their vampire powers, and that they were safe until they where considered mature.

If a vampire could turn someone into a vampire he could also be able to protect them. Not being able to do that would just prove he wasn't a real nosferatu.

He could feel the morning drawing closer and decided that he would have to talk to Integra the next evening. Alucard was powerful enough so that sunlight didn't kill him, all true No Life Kings could withstand the burning of the sun that was fatal to all the younger vampires, but he still would prefer to talk with Integra during the night.

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"It is a long story, better suited to be told during our next meeting, you majesty." She could hear Integra say over the phone.

"Very well... but during our next meeting you have to introduce me to this young van Hellsing." She said.

"Very well." Was the reply.

The Queen of England put the phone back down and sat back into her chair. What Integra didn't know was that the meeting would be earlier then she suspected. Integra had perked her interest, she was really curious on the new van Hellsing. Anyone who could defeat a ghoul without prior knowledge had to be something special.

She decided that she would need to talk to Integra as soon as possible and had already begun to arrange a visit to the Hellsing manor for the next evening.

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M was sitting in her chair and thinking about her next course of action.

Now she had two Bonds in the bureau, and if Ranma continued like this he would without and difficulty become a 00.

She wondered if she would contact James, but in the end decided against it. It appeared from the report that Nodoka and James had wanted to make sure Ranma didn't end in their world. She wondered what James reaction would be when he found out his son was already in the middle of it.

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**Author's notes**

As I said, now that the school has started it will take some time between updates. And those of you that worries that I have abandoned Halo of the Hero, I haven't, it was just that I got so many responses on this that I thought it would be a good idea to continue it. The next chapter I will post will be on that story.

I have asked ShadoDragon if I could do a remake of Interlychantropy and he gave me the clear sign. Only problem is that I can only write two stories at the most or else there will take months between updates.

Once I have finished with this I will begin on my remake. Or perhaps on one of the two other stories I have planned.

I will try and cycle between my two stories, first writing a chapter for one and then writing a chapter for the other.


	6. Familiar Faces

**Disclaimer: Don't own it, just write it. **

**Changing Path **

**Chapter 6 -Familiar Faces**

Ceres yawned as she woke up and she rubbed her eyes absentmindedly. Her internal clock said that the sun had gone down and it was time to wake up. She smiled a little but didn't understand why.

Something was different.

Something was _very _different.

But unfortunately the vampire couldn't figure out what it was that made her feel that way.

Then it hit her, she didn't have single nightmare during the entire night. That hadn't happened since before she was turned into a vampire. Still thinking about it, she shifted her body a little to lie more comfortable.

Ceres froze as the mattress she was lying on groaned and moved a little. She opened one of her eyes and could see she was lying atop of a sleeping Ranma, his right arm around her waist. A blanket was lying on top of both of them.

Ceres couldn't understand how she ended up in bed with Ranma, but then all that happened yesterday crashed back into her mind.

Ranma had said that he didn't care that she was a vampire, and that he…loved her.

The expression of confusion was replaced with a happy smile, Ranma loved her and that was all that mattered to her right now.

He even trusted her enough to sleep in the same room, even when he knew what she was. It appeared that all her prayers had been answered.

She sighed happily and then kissed him on his cheek. She then snuggled closely and Ranma laid his arm around Ceres.

When Ranma awoke the only thing he could see was strawberry blonde hair. He froze as he realized he was in bed with Ceres.

A woman.

A beautiful woman.

A really beautiful woman.

A really beautiful woman who was in close proximity to him.

He fought down the first reflex to bolt away as fast as possible as not to be hit with a mallet.

But luckily (In Ranma's opinion) a really beautiful woman in close proximity to him with her clothes _on._ Even though Ranma had been away from Nerima for almost a year, he still was a little naïve when it came to being _intimate _with women.

She looked as him with a happy buoyant smile that showed both her elongated fangs. Most people would at least have shuddered but Ranma only thought it made her look cute.

"Sleep well?" She asked and ran her hand through his raven black hair.

"Yepp." He answered simply and stretched a little.

She leaned down and kissed him full on the lips, and Ranma's mind froze up once again. His mind went through multiple things at the moment, mostly things like, run away, hide, or come up with an excuse to leave the room.

Then he remembered that there weren't any mallet happy tomboys in the area so he returned the kiss, feeling happier then he had been in a long while.

Ceres was a happy little vampire, the man she loved hadn't turned her down when he found out she was a vampire. He had said that he loved her, that he wouldn't leave her, right now she felt as nothing could harm her, scare her, just as long as Ranma was with her.

She thanked whatever lucky star that she had found a man that carried for her, but she wondered how he could be so accepting. Then she remembered exactly what he had told her, he was cursed.

Ceres broke the kiss and looked Ranma straight in the eyes.

"You are cursed?" She asked uncertainly.

Ranma's smile vanished at once and he nodded in affirmative, and looked away. He looked like he was in deep thought for a while but then they met eyes again.

"I…well it's one of the reasons I believed Integra when she told me of the existence of vampires. I have had numerous encounters with magic, and some contact with none-humans. To understand how I got cursed I better tell you how I grew up." He said and sighed.

Ceres nodded, keen on finding out more about the man that had captured her heart.

"I grew up in Japan…."

Ranma began to tell the story of his life up to the events at the cursed springs. His brief friendship with Ukyo and Ryoga, the dreaded Neko-Ken, the seppeku pledge.

As he progressed farther in the story Ceres expression changed from shock, fear, and then settled to anger. Had the vampire known how to summon a battle aura she would had had one that would rival Saffron's.

"How could he do that? Oh, if I see him I'm going to give him such a beating." The angry vampire said with snarl.

Ranma having seen righteous female wrath many times before was just happy that it wasn't directed towards him for once.

"Well, the end of the training trip should be a visit at the legendary training grounds Junsenkyo. It is a valley filled with hundreds of springs, each spring having a different curse…." He said and looked up at the ceiling.

"What is your curse exactly?" She asked as she sat up in the couch she had been lying on.

"I better show you." He said simply and stood up and walked into the bathroom. He exited a moment later holding two cups with water.

He sat down on the couch next to Ceres and placed the cups on the table.

"The curse works like this." He said and dumped one of the cups over his head.

Ceres eyes grew wide as she saw Ranma change from a handsome black-haired young man into a short busty redhead.

"When I am hit with cold water I turn into a girl." Ranma said and then dumped the other cup of water over his head and he changed back.

"And warm water turns me back." He said and leaned back into the couch and closed his eyes.

Ceres stuttered a little. Sure she had seen some unbelievable stuff during her time with Hellsing, but this was just….odd.

"You turn completely into a girl?" She asked, her eyes still wide.

"Only my body, not my mind." He answered simply.

"Then it's not so bad is it? I mean it could be worse…" She said and trailed off.

"I don't think so, of all the curses I could get I think this was the worst one possible." He said and sighed.

Ceres frowned a little, it was sounding to her as it was the worst thing on Earth to be a woman.

"I can't believe you say that. I am a woman and I am not complaining because of that" She said a little irritated.

"I didn't mean it like that." He said to ease the vampire's anger.

"Then what did you mean?" She huffed and crossed her arms before her chest and tried to look stern.

"The curse in itself isn't bad, it has helped me more times then I can count. If it only had been the curse I had to deal with I would have been fine."

"What do you mean?" She asked again, but this time she was curious.

"When I was back in Japan I hated the curse more then anything else, but during the time I have been here in London I haven't even given it a second thought. I have decided that I can live with it."

"I still don't understand." She said.

"It was people's reaction to my curse, everyone treated me like I was some kind of pervert or freak, even though there was many others that also had Junsenkyo curses. Genma always told me to stop being a little girl and be a man among men, but after I got cursed he always blamed me for it." He said and sighed sadly at the memory.

He began to tell Ceres about his time in Nerima, the fights, the rivals, all the false cures, more fights, all the fiancées that he didn't have a say about.

"Even if my curse helped my out of many troubles it was often it that made them in the first place." He said and opened his eyes and looked on Ceres.

The vampire was sitting on the couch with a look of extreme anger on her face, her left eye was twitching violently, and she had clenched her hands. Her face was consorted into a snarl that clearly showed her fangs.

"I will kill him, I am going to rip him apart limb for limb." She said with a loud growl that couldn't possible come from a human throat.

Ranma just shrugged, all people that had met Genma or been told about him had reacted mostly in the same manner as Ceres did now. Well the vampire seemed a lot more pissed then usual but that was it.

"No… I know what I am going to do with him, I am going to turn him into a ghoul." She said more to herself then Ranma.

"I don't think he would taste any good." He said absentmindedly and then was struck with the absurdity of what he was saying.

He began to chuckle a little and that shook Ceres out of her thought of bloody vengeance.

Her mind registered what both she and Ranma had said and she began to giggle demurely.

The laughing faded away and both fell into an uncomfortable silence.

Ranma looked around the stone room and then back at Ceres.

"So how big is this place? I only saw it briefly before." He said.

"I can show you around if you want, just let me change into some clean clothes" She said and stood up from the couch.

"Okay" He said and walked out the door.

He stood outside of her room and whistled a happy tune, and then looked down on his own clothes. He was still dressed in his jeans and white tee shirt with the half a dozen or so bullet holes. He just shook his head and shuddered at the memory, as long as he wasn't shot he could manage pretty well against ghouls and vampires…

The door behind him opened and Ceres stepped out in her usual blue Hellsing uniform. Before his mind registered what he did he leaned forwards and kissed her.

"What's that for?" She asked.

"Just felt like I should kiss you." He said and shrugged his shoulders.

She answered with a kiss of her own. They broke apart, both with a massive blush, both smiling. As they regained their composure Ceres grabbed hold of his arm and dragged him him towards the stairs.

Meanwhile Ranma was thinking about what he had done, he had kissed a girl without second thought. He had kissed her before his mind hat managed to catch up, and to Ranma that meant only one thing. He loved her.

Most people that knew Ranma would say that he had the ability to do things without thinking them through, he always trusted his instincts.

His instincts had told him to don't trust Nabiki and trust Kasumi, it was his instincts that told him to keep the hell away from the Kunos. In fact, it was his instincts that had decided how to look on people in general back in Nerima.

It was probably his instincts that always made him put his foot in the mouth the entire time when around Akane to voice his subconscious dislike for the youngest Tendo daughter. He didn't at first care about what his instincts told him about Akane, but after awhile he didn't lie to himself any longer, he didn't like Akane any longer, and probably never would. He hadn't acted in the most diplomatic way, but his instincts had only speed up the inevitable.

And now if his instinct told him to kiss Ceres that meant that he was closer to her then he realized before.

He looked at the buoyant vampire who walked next to him and was holding his arm tightly.

He leaned down and once again kissed her.

Ranma always trusted his instincts.

A black Rolls Royce with shaded windows stopped at the gate to the Hellsing manor. It was late in the evening, or beginning of the night.

Two guards carrying MP5 walked over to the car, the drivers window opened and one of the guards glanced inside the car with a flashlight.

"I am sorry, this is private property. I am afraid you will have to leave." The guard said politely.

"I think you could make an exception this time. I would wish to talk Integra Hellsing" A voice coming from the passenger seat said.

The guard let the light of the flashlight pass over the passenger seat and immediately recognized the person.

"At once, your Majesty." He said and saluted.

The heavy gates opened and let the car pass.

The guard walked over to the guard post and picked up the radio, he needed to talk with Walter. If the Queen had made an appointment with Sir Hellsing he would have known about it, so he needed to tell Walter to prepare for her arrival.

Ceres dragged Ranma into what appeared to be a huge training area. Some Hellsing soldiers were sparring against each other, but it was empty for the most part.

"This is our P.T hall, where the soldiers are trained in various martial arts disciplines. Unfortunately I am banned from training with the regular soldiers…."She said and trailed off.

The last time she had been here she had sent a new soldier to the hospital who had been stupid enough to cope a feel of her chest. Integra had given her the strict orders not to fight any of the Hellsing soldiers under any circumstances. Ceres thought that was a little unfair, it wasn't her fault that the soldier had to be a pervert.

"Want to spar? I haven't trained with anyone in a while" He said and looked at the hall longingly.

"I don't want to hurt you." She said and looked at him. If she wasn't careful she might kill him with her vampire strength.

He answered without thinking it through first.

"Then you will have to go easy on me." He said and then blinked.

Had Akane said that he would have probably retorted with "Yeah, with your gorilla strength you probably will" or something along those lines.

Once again his instincts had struck, but this time they told him to be nice to Ceres. He really didn't want to make the vampire angry or sad, he cared about her to much.

"Okay." She said a little uncertainly.

He just gave her his trademark cocky smile that she loved/hated.

Both walked to the training mats and took a ready stance.

Ceres got impatient and then decided to attack first. She lunged after Ranma, intended to push him to the floor, but didn't put to much speed or strength behind it. She could see that he still had the cocky smile on. As she was only a small distance away from him and about to grab onto him he seemed to become liquid as he ducked under her arms and reappeared behind her.

Now that Ranma was gone her momentum continued to carry her face-first towards the floor. She closed her eyes and prepared to hit it, but the she felt arms encircle her waist and pull her back.

"Go easy on me indeed." He said in a joking tone as he pulled her back into her feet.

"How?" She asked, not quite believing the sheer speed with which he moved.

"Try not to overextend so much and keep a stable footing. I think we should just do some normal punches and blocks." He said and went into serious teacher mode. He had perfected that during his work as martial arts instructor with the British Secret Service.

Ceres just blinked in confusion.

"Lets try that again." He said and took a ready stance.

She only nodded and followed his example.

This time Ranma attacked first and threw a slow punch that she easily deflected.

Following his suggestions, they began to throw punches at each other, albeit not using all their strength. Both opponents circled each other and threw punches and kicks, although Ceres didn't seem to connect very often.

When Ceres threw a punch she could feel that he moved closer and tapped her on different locations on her body, chest, stomach, shoulders etc.

She understood after a while that he showed her where her defence wasn't good enough and she began to put much more effort in keeping a strong defence.

Ranma was impressed on how quickly she reacted to his hints on a better defence, it had barely taken 5 minutes and now she had a defence that would be though to brake, unfortunately she seemed to neglect her offensive now.

At least she seemed willing to learn from her mistakes, unlike an unnamed tomboy. He had used the same training technique on Akane but after over 2 months and no progress he quit trying.

Ceres on the other hand had gone from using brute force to using a grace and finesse that was inhuman, probably a bit of her vampire powers surfacing. She was far from near his league yet but with the improvements, it wouldn't take her long before she would catch up. The only person who he had seen being able to learn that fast was himself.

Even though he had changed a lot his modesty, or lack thereof still remained.

The only big fault he could see with her fighting style was that she seemed to neglect using kicks. Half second later he understood why that was so, the skirt she was wearing was way to short and restricted movement to much to be of any use in a fight. He had to fight down an atomic blush as he realized how skimpy that skirt was… and how nice legs Ceres had.

The movement of distraction gave Ceres the time to lunge at him much in the same way that she had in the beginning of the fight.

Ranma groaned as the vampire hit him square in the chest and tackled him backwards to the floor.

Ceres groaned and rubbed her ankle a little where she had hit the floor a little unluckily. Even though being a vampire gave her phenomenal regenerative powers it still hurt a little.

"I think we should stop now, don't you think so?" He said and rubbed the back of his head.

"Ouch… yeah I think that would be a good idea." She said and continued to rub her ankle.

Ranma stood up and then took a good grip on Ceres and pulled her to her feet. Her ankle still hurt and as Ranma saw this he cursed himself for not paying attention and then lifted Ceres up in the classical damsel in distress position.

Ceres blushed but didn't stop him.

Even though her ankle had stop hurting as she left the room she still found it sweet of Ranma for carrying so much about her welfare.

Integra van Hellsing was sitting and thinking about her current predicament. She hadn't seen her nephew today but didn't think much about it, he would manage on his own.

What really bothered her was what she would do with him. He was a potential heir to the institute and if the stunt in the alley had shown anything a lethal fighter that could perhaps even match Walter when he was in his prime.

It seemed as the blood of the vampire Hunter was stronger in him then any person she had meet prior.

He could become a valuable asset to the Hellsing institute, even though she had Alucard she needed the additional manpower.

He seemed to have a decent personality, and with time he could very well become the next leader and Knight of Hellsing.

It was reassuring to know that there was another Hellsing, and one who could take over if she happened to die. If she died and there weren't any relatives by blood Alucard would be set free. Integra dreaded to think what the vampire would do then.

Ranma might become the new leader, but only if she trained him. She hadn't decided yet, she wasn't sure if he could survive it.

She fingered one of the silver daggers still lying on her desk, Ranma's katanas she had placed in her personal quarters, maybe the incident in the alley was just pure luck. She really didn't know what to do.

The door opened and Walter stepped in, but he wasn't carrying the usual silver tray. He hurried over to her desk.

"Her Majesty has just entered the grounds." He said simply.

Integra blinked and then thought quickly on what to do.

"Get Ranma and bring him here. I promised the Queen that she would meet the new van Hellsing the next time we met, I just though that it would be later then sooner." She said and stood up.

Walter nodded and then walked out the door.

Integra turned towards the portrait of her father and just hoped that Ranma's manners were good.

Ranma sat Ceres down on the couch and then sat next to her and began to probe her ankle to see if it was fully healed.

"Thanks." Ceres said shyly.

"No problems." He said and with a smile.

Ceres leaned forwards and kissed him full on the lips, one hand brushing through his hair. They broke the kiss and looked at each other, both blushing.

Ranma had always had a hard time deciding what he wanted, but right he knew that he never had been more sure in his entire life, being with Ceres what was he wanted.

Ranma pushed Ceres down and kissed her, Ranma trailing a finger down her cheek. The kiss became longer, going from tender and loving to passionate and needing.

They rolled around, Ranma laying on the bottom and massaging Ceres back, and Ceres was lying on top and holding Ranma tightly. She moaned a little in the kiss as Ranma rubbed her back.

The embrace became more and more passionate, their kiss more and more feverish. They rolled around once again and rolled off the couch but the two didn't seem to notice.

Ceres was once again lying on the bottom, her body pinned to the floor. She snaked her legs out from under Ranma and curled them around his waist trying desperate to bring him closer.

Ceres moans grow louder as Ranma trailed one of his hands down her side, stopping at her hip. He broke the kiss and looked down on Ceres. Both were blushing and breathing fast, a look of passion on their faces.

Ranma leaned down and gently kissed Ceres on the lips before breaking of again. He kissed and nuzzled her cheek and then began to plant small kisses down her neck. As he continued down lower down her neck, her moans grew louder.

He opened the buttons on Ceres uniform and continued to kiss down her neck and stopped at her collarbone, he sucked and bite down softly into her collarbone. She closed her eyes and let her head fall back, moaning loudly, her breath increasing pace. Ceres snaked her hand under Ranma's shirt and went over his muscled shoulders

Ranma removed her shirt from her shoulders and began to trace small kisses down her shoulders.

Walter began to grow desperate, Ranma wasn't anywhere to be found. The quarter he had been given was empty and the bed was unused.

Running through the mansion he asked everyone he came across if they had seen a young Asian man. One maid had told him that she though she had seen him walk towards the gym a while back.

Taking up on the lead, he ran to the gym, hoping that Ranma was still there.

Entering it, he didn't find a sign of the young van Hellsing. Sighing he walked over to some of the soldiers who was working out on the equipment.

He walked over to the captain, who was punching away on a punching bag. As the captain saw the van Hellsing retainer walk towards him he stopped his activity and turned to great him, but was cut off before he could say anything.

"Have you seen a young man of Asian descent? Sir Hellsing needs to speak with him immediately." He said, sounding only a little stressed.

The captain blinked then shrugged at the butler's behaviour.

"There was a kid here half an hour ago. He had a fight with Victoria and then dragged her out of here, I think he were heading for the basement." He would have added that he hadn't seen such a good sparring match in a long while and that the kid seemed to do everything not to hurt the vampire but Walter was already half way across the gym and moving towards the door.

The captain just shrugged and returned to the punching bag.

Walter increased his pace and cursed silently, he knew that Ranma had all rights to be mad at Victoria, she had kept the fact that she was a vampire from him, but fighting her was to much, no gentleman hit a lady.

He needed to find him before he did something really stupid. Fighting a vampire was bad, he dreaded what would happen if Ceres got mad. She might accidentally turn him to a ghoul or worse… into a vampire.

Walking purposely down the stone stairs leading to the basements he made his towards Ceres room. The empty dark stone halls seeming sinister and a shiver that went up his spine told him he probably wouldn't like what he found.

As he stood outside the door leading to Victoria's room he was about to knock on it when he thought he heard someone moan in pain.

He flung the door open and stepped inside to stop whatever was happening inside. As the light from the hall flooded the dark room he expected to find scenes of gruesome murder, bloody limbs and pools of blood covering the walls. The table and some of the chairs were lying strewn across the floor and as Walter saw this it only confirmed his suspicion that something bad had happened.

He prepared for everything possible… well almost everything possible. He didn't in a thousand years expect to find the blonde vampire lying on the floor with her legs around the waist of the potential heir to the Hellsing institute, both sharing a deep passionate kiss.

Walter's eyes went wide as saucers and his body froze up. This was worse then he expected, being turned into a ghoul was a short and painless death if you compare to what Integra would do to Ranma once she found out. You were brave if you fought an army of ghouls and vampires alone… Pissing Integra off was just plain stupid and suicidal. Ranma would need divine intervention to survive this.

Vampires and humans just simply didn't mix, and a vampire and a van Hellsing… They were supposed to be bitter enemies.

Ceres and Ranma both had a lock of dears caught in the headlights, and then half a second later they both blushed atomic red at being caught. They began to stutter and try to explain themselves.

Walter was just happy that they had most of their clothes still on.

Walter's mind and body unfroze and he though quickly of a way to salvage the situation.

"Sir, Integra needs to speak with you quickly." He said and turned around and left the room.

Left in the dark room were Ranma and Ceres, both silently moving apart from each other. Ranma stood up and pulled Ceres to her feet and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

Ranma quickly exited the room, leaving an uncertain Ceres standing alone in the completely dark room.

Ceres silently reprimanded herself for pushing it to fast, Ranma maybe had accepted her for being a vampire, but she still knew that he needed time to get used to it. Trying to get him in bed was not the best way of doing that.

Ranma followed Walter who seemed to stare blankly of in space. Ranma cursed himself for his moment of weakness, he was thankful for the interruption, he didn't want to mess up his relationship with Ceres, not wanting to push it to fast.

He hadn't been in control, what if Ceres didn't want to do it? He didn't want to push Ceres away now that he finally had gotten the cat out of the bag and admitted to himself that he loved her.

But a small part in the back of his mind still told him that it was a bad thing that Walter had interrupted him, that if she didn't want him to kiss her she would have told him so.

He sighed, things had been a lot easier when it concerned women back in Nerima, either he did something wrong and got bashed or he didn't do something wrong… and got bashed.

Walter looked at the young van Hellsing and saw that he was deep in thought. Walter immediately noticed something else… Ranma's clothes were ripped, torn and dirty. His shirt was filled with bullet holes, and had a long tear at the neck, going down his back, his jeans were ripped in numerous places, all in all he looked like a beggar and not the heir to the Hellsing institute. It wasn't exactly the things you want to wear when meeting the Queen.

He quickly debated with himself if he should take Ranma to Integra's office at once and be on time, or get him some proper clothes and be late. He decided that a good appearance would be the most important, Integra would likely have his head if he turned up with Ranma looking like this.

"We should perhaps do something about your appearance, please follow me." Walter said and motioned towards the stairs.

Ranma, still in deep though, followed the butler automatically.

They arrived at their destination, Integra's chambers. Walter quickly entered and Ranma followed, he was looking around the huge room. Walter walked over to Integra's closet and began to look through the different clothes. He pulled out a number of different clothes, hopefully Integra wouldn't be _too _angry with him for borrowing some of her clothes.

He turned back, his arms full with some of Integra's different business suits. Hopefully they would fit him, he was just thankful that Integra always dressed like a man.

Placing the pile of clothes on Integra's bed he turned towards the young heir and could see that he was inspecting one of Integra's weapons.

"This is a Walther-P99 isn't it?" Ranma asked as he placed the weapon back on the table.

"Yes, now would you please try some of theses clothes? We have very little time." He said and pointed to the pile of clothes lying on the bed. Walter was silently wondering how he knew that. He would have been surprised to know that Ranma was familiar with that weapon, it was the standard choice of arms for the British Secret Service.

Ranma nodded and then walked over to the bed and picked up the first piece. It was one of Integra's green business suits.

Even though Ranma and Integra was of the same height, the clothes didn't really fit. Ranma was more muscular, making it completely impossible to even try to close the shirt.

Walter groaned and threw another piece to Ranma from the closet but, like all the others, it didn't fit. Walter scrambled through the entire closet, in search for clothes.

Walter let his head fall in defeat… and enjoyed it for the very last time, Integra would surely have his head for this. He looked around and spotted something hanging in the far end of the closet. Walter smiled a somewhat strange smile, it looked almost…. Evil. He picked it up and handed it to Ranma who had folded all the clothes into a neat pile.

"Are you sure? This may be a little to much." Ranma said unsure.

"It is better then the clothes you are wearing now." The Hellsing retainer said and pushed the bundle of clothes into his chest.

"If you say so."

"So, tell me, how is this new van Hellsing?" The Queen said as she sipped her tea.

Integra leaned back in her chair and contemplated about the question for while.

"I don't really know that much about him, I haven't seen enough of him to give a satisfactory opinion as of yet. But from what little I have seen he appears to be good enough, a little brash and to trusting perhaps but still acceptable." She said and sipped her tea.

The Queen nodded in understanding. Integra wasn't really the one who used to praise people, and the people that knew Integra would know that an "acceptable" from her mouth meant that the person was quite good.

"So, is he capable of becoming the next heir to the Hellsing institute?"

"I do not know yet if I should train him, he seems a little to overconfident for my taste… And I wonder if I really can bring myself to make him live a life as a Hunter. It would perhaps be best if he cut all ties with the van Hellsing family and lived a normal life" She said and sighed.

Once again the Queen nodded in understanding. She understood how hard if must be on Integra to make a choice such as this, being in this kind of work required nerves of steel and immense self sacrifice.

"May I give you an advice?" The Queen asked.

"Naturally, your Majesty." Was the answer.

"I do not think this is your choice but his. Explain what will be asked of him and make sure he understands the consequences of his choice." She said and looked straight at Integra.

Before Integra could answer a knock on the door announced the arrival of Ranma and Walter.

Walter stepped in first and cleared his throat.

"Your Majesty, Sir Hellsing I present to you Ranma Takeda Saotome van Hellsing." He said and bowed.

Ranma entered through the door, wearing Integra's ceremonial Knight Uniform. It was a slightly modified green Hellsing uniform with a blue tie, brown boots and a dark brown overcoat. The normal ceremonial blade was replaced with both of Ranma's swords, hanging from a white belt. Naturally Walter had removed the strips and pins that marked him as the Hellsing leader and as a member of the Knights of the Round Table.

Ranma looked like he didn't like the uniform because he was losing the tie a little.

Both the Queen's and Integra's eyes opened wide both for a different reason. One because of the fact that he was wearing her uniform and the other because she recognised him.

The Queen quickly regained her composure and looked slightly amused.

"It seems to me Ranma, that you have an ability to end up in quite interesting positions." She said clearly amused.

Ranma's eyes widened as he recognised the old woman, and with a bow that would impress any royal court, courtesy of M, he greeted her.

"It is an honour and a true pleasure to meet you your Majesty." M had really trained him hard before the dinner with the Queen, threatening with lots and lots of computer classes, and he was surprised that he found need for it once again.

Integra's eyes widened more, and Walter was looking shocked.

"And you speak the truth, I truly have the ability to end up in peculiar…situations." He said in a clearly British accent.

"Please don't talk like that now, it may be appropriate in the royal court but it gets annoying after a while." She said with a smile.

"As you wish your Majesty." He said with a bow.

The Queen sighed in frustration.

"If you don't want to talk like a normal person I will have to order you to do it."

"Sorry…Well, M was kind of determined to make sure that I knew the formal protocols." He said and dropped the accent, and scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"I think I will have to have a word with her… I would like to have a normal conversation once in a while." The Queen said clearly amused.

"Well, normal isn't really a word to describe me…" He said and trailed off.

"Yes, M told me so. So how have you been? I have heard you have been quite busy the last couple of months."

"Nothing really interesting has happened the last month, just a small incident, nothing important." He said and shrugged.

"You mean the incident in Russia? I heard about it… it appears that a large amount of the delegation has developed a fear for cars."" The Queen said and laughed a little.

"It wasn't that bad. Sure it was a little bumpy, but nothing really dangerous." He said and tried to excuse himself.

"You took a shortcut through a forest…. In about a 100 miles per hour." She said and shook her head in amusement.

"Well, I brought them back in one piece." He said a little defensively.

"Which can't be said about the truck…" She said and finished his sentence. He was almost as bad as Sir James Bond.

The entire time both Walter and Integra had been sitting quiet and listening to the exchange of words. But Integra decided to break her silence.

"Your Majesty? You know my nephew?" She said and tried to regain her composure. She had seen some pretty strange stuff during her life, but the fact that her long lost nephew seemed to know the Queen personally was more then she could handle.

"We have met before." She answered.

"But I hardly think that the first time we met was under the best circumstances." Ranma added.

"Definitely not." The Queen added and she lost her amusement at the memory.

"What happened?" Integra asked confused.

"This young man saved my life. Do you remember the attack on the Secret Service's main building a couple of months ago?" The Queen asked.

"Yes, some armed terrorist had managed to sneak inside and tried to blow the building up, or so my information tells me." She said as she recalled the event. She hadn't really paid it much attention, it didn't have anything to do with the FREAK-activity.

"Well, in reality I was the target. Ranma here heroically saved me and my bodyguard life at the risk of his own." The Queen said.

"It wasn't anything." Ranma said and tried to brush it off as nothing.

"Really? How often is it that someone tries to kill you with machine guns?" The Queen asked.

"Well, I am not really keeping track on how many times someone has tried to kill me, its not really that unusual. Killing me with weapons is a different matter, but during the last couple of months I have gotten used to it." He said honestly.

The Queen, Walter, and Integra just looked at him like he had grown a second head.

"What exactly has M been doing to you?" The Queen answered a little shocked, if Ranma considered being attacked in the attempt to kill an every day occurrence she would have a long talk with M.

"Nothing. Actually the attempts to kill me have steadily decreased since I moved here." He said with a shrug.

Once again everyone looked like he had grown a second head.

Walter coughed in his hand to gain the others intention. Everyone turned to look at the aged Hellsing retainer.

"I don't want to sound impolite, but how did you save the Queen? The attack was in the British Secret Service HQ, one of the best guarded places in Britain. No one could enter without proper authorisation, so what were you doing there?" Walter asked, but he had his suspicions. The fact that he knew who M was, the fact he seemed able to fight, and the fact he recognised Integra's Walther-P99.

"You haven't told them?" The Queen asked surprised.

"Opps" Ranma said sheepishly.

"Opps? What?" Integra asked and rubbed her temple with her fingers. She had the feeling she would get a huge headache.

"Let me do a proper introduction. This is Ranma Saotome, agent in my British Secret Service."

And there the headache came…. Her nephew, the heir to the Hellsing institute knew the Queen personally, _and _was a member of the Secret Service.

"Please tell me Ranma why you didn't mention any of this before." Integra said and closed her eyes and wondered if she should get an aspirin.

"Policy of the agency I am afraid. It just comes naturally now, I am not supposed to mention I work for the Secret Service, or M will have my head." Ranma said and shrugged.

"Trusting indeed." The Queen said and looked at Integra with a smile.

"And it is agent in _training_, I still haven't finished the education." Ranma said and looked from the Queen to Integra back to the Queen.

Integra sighed deeply and then looked back at Ranma.

"Is there something else you haven't told me that I should know about?"

Flash, Pheonix-gods, magical mirrors, 300 year old martial artists, love potions……

"Not anything really important that you have to know about now." He said and shrugged. He could tell her later, but he hardly thought that some of those things would be good for the Queen to hear.

"So there _is_ more?" Integra asked while looking stern at Ranma.

Ranma just realized that Integra had the same expression that M had when he had messed up big-time. And that was _not_ good.

"Well, yeah, kind of. We could talk about it later if you want." He said and went on the defence.

When M was in that mood the only thing you could do was to keep your distance and ride out the storm.

"Yes, we are going to have a long talk after this." Integra said and made it perfectly clear that it wasn't a suggestion.

"_Great, another one." _Ranma thought as Integra reminded him so much of M that it was spooky. It wasn't the looks that were similar, they couldn't have been farther apart, but it was the way they acted. They could freeze the bravest men in their tracks with one look.

"Ranma, I have a question." The Queen said.

"Yes, your Majesty?" He said and motioned for her to continue.

The Queen looked on him disapprovingly as he said the last part.

"Okay, okay, no more royal etiquette, sorry." He said quickly.

Integra would be after his head as soon as the Queen left, and he didn't want the Queen to be angry on him to.

"Why are you wearing those clothes?" She finally asked and motioned to the Hellsing uniform.

"Well, the clothes I arrived with was pretty much ruined, and these were the only ones we could find that would fit." He said and shrugged.

"From your encounter with the ghouls?" She asked.

"Yes, my clothes got torn during the fight" He said and unconsciously rubbed his stomach were a couple of the rounds from the vampire's Uzi had it.

He didn't really know if it was an Uzi, only that it was a small fully automatic firearm. The weapon training in Scotland hadn't really made him that much smarter, he learned weapon regulations, and then got to shot with a couple of the standard Secret Service weapons.

Then they were shown the difference between the different sorts of weapons mostly in use today. He still needed to take numerous lessons on weapon regulations before even attempting to take the test for his weapon licence. The Service was very strict with those tests, one may think that the classes in psychology or advanced math were hard but they were nothing compared to the classes you had to take to get your licence.

Somehow that also made him feel better, he would have been disappointed if they gave _him_, Ranma Saotome, a lethal firearm, he would probably misplace it within fifteen minutes.

Alucard could feel that the sun had set and the nocturnal vampire-instincts kick in. He would have to go to Integra sooner or later, he just found it strange that Integra hadn't called him already. Right now I didn't matter, he had to report the demise of his fledgling.

He began to float upwards through the ceiling, heading for the place where he could feel Integra's presence. As he moved farther through the manor he could feel the familiar tingle of a vampire in the surrounding area. He realized a second later that it was close to Integra, and he quickly discarded any thoughts about informing Integra about Victoria's death, and began to prepare for the upcoming battle.

As he phased through the building he smirked.

Victoria walked through the halls of Hellsing manor, heading straight for Integra's office. To say that she was an annoyed vampire would be a big understatement. She knew that it probably would reflect bad on her service record is she maimed or otherwise hurt Integra, but she was going to have a_ long_ talk with her.

Being interrupted in her room had seriously pissed off the vampire, but she also knew that it really wasn't Integra's fault. It was just that during the last year or so it felt that she had been neglected as a person, and when she finally found someone that did care about her, Integra just had to go in between and take him away.

Nope, Ceres wasn't in any good mood right now.

"So, how is M doing?" The Queen asked and sipped on her tea.

"Well, truthfully?" He said and sighed.

"Yes?" She asked and looked interested.

"I try to follow rule number one. Stay away from the superiors" Ranma said and scratched the back of his neck.

Unseen to everyone Walter smiled as he recalled a fond old memory.

"_For all the new technology and such, it appears that the agency hasn't changed much." _Walter thought to himself.

He was shaken out of his thought by a polite knock on the door. He stood up from where he was sitting and went and opened the massive oak doors.

Ceres stood in the doorway, with an expression of determination on her face.

That look melted away as soon as she saw how was in the room exactly. She gulped and looked confused at Integra. The Queen simply motioned for her to step inside the room.

"Don't worry, I don't bite." The Queen said as the girl moved uncertainly forwards.

"But I may." Ceres answered before she could think of anything else to say.

The Queen blinked and then noticed the crimson eyes. She seemed slightly amused.

"Officer Victoria, is there any special reason you are here?" Integra asked and looked at the vampire with a stern expression.

Ranma turned to Integra to say something but he stopped abruptly as he tensed up visibly.

Nabiki looked out the window and sighed deeply. Ranma had been gone almost a year now, and it still was noticeable in her wallet. She was very reluctant to begin any kind of schemes at her colleague.

Principal Kuno maybe allowed it at Furikan High, but with the principal at her college it was another thing. She had a few schemes going apart from the selling and distributing information to the Nerima Wrecking Crew, but nothing that really gave any kind of money.

She had to be very careful, or she might attract the attention of the authorities, and that wouldn't be good. She was pretty secure with the money from the NWC, but everything else was a great hazard.

The money Ranma had generated had disappeared, but unfortunately the costs for repairing and maintaining the Dojo had stayed.

She made enough to keep things going, but she didn't get the overflow of money she was used too.

She looked out of the window again, and could see Akane walk through the front gate, with a distinct slump to her shoulders. She was dragging her backpack behind her and was looking down on the ground. Nabiki only shock her head, Akane had finally realized that Ranma wouldn't come back, and that it mostly was her fault. She had been slightly depressed since then.

Nabiki cursed Saotome, even if it was justified he had still hurt her family. Akane asked Nabiki every day with a little hope in her eyes if she had found any trace of Ranma. That hope always vanished when she told her that she hadn't found anything on his whereabouts.

Nabiki felt truly bad for her sister, she really did, and she had done everything possible to find Saotome, but in the end that had proven fruitless.

Integra had barely time to register what happened. Ranma seemed to become a blur as the daggers on her desk disappeared and reappeared in Ranma's hands. He had a look of total and absolute fury in his eyes

The daggers didn't stay in his hands for long however, as he with a flick of his wrist threw all the daggers in one hand backwards past his head.

Victoria's eyes widened as the lethal blades headed towards her. She closed her eyes and awaited the feeling of burning silver cutting through her flesh. It never came, but she could hear the blades fly past her and with a sickening rip of flesh tear into something behind her.

The deafening sound of a gun-blast followed by the explosion of a vase on the marble fireplace alerted everyone to the presence of a hostile. Small pieces of porcelain clattered to the floor.

Ranma blurred again as he spun around to face Victoria, and with a quick motion of his hand threw the remaining daggers towards her.

As before the daggers flew past her to hit something behind her.

Walter quickly spun around and in a blink of an eye had his monofilament-wires out. Integra had drawn her Walther-P99 loaded with silver bullets and pointed it towards Ceres random direction.

Ranma was standing in a half-crouch, looking like he prepared for a leap. He had a blade in each hand, and Integra could have sworn that they seemed to glow with a surreal blue-light, but dismissed it as an imagination due to the low light.

She quickly turned back towards matters at hand. As she looked past Ceres she could see the familiar outline of Alucard inside a shadow that seemed to grow weaker.

He had his jackal drawn and it was pointing towards Victoria.

The thing that really caught her attention was the fact that all daggers Ranma had thrown were buried in his chest, all except one. That one was buried in his hand, the same hand that was holding the gun. Alucard looked straight at Victoria, but then changed his gaze to look at Ranma.

A smirk crossed the vampire's lips, and with a shrug of his shoulders all the silver daggers clattered to the floor.

Ranma moved the blades in front of him in preparation of an attack, the mask of fury was now replaced by a calm expression.

As both Integra and Walter recognised Alucard they relaxed a little, but they still had their weapons ready.

"ALU…" Integra began but never got time to finish the statement.

With a swift motion Alucard changed the aim of his gun from Victoria to rest exactly on Ranma's heart.

Integra's eyes widened.

Without hesitation Alucard fired at Ranma.

Ranma seemed to phase out of reality as he dodged, the bullet flying past him and hitting the stone wall. Ranma took off and headed straight towards the vampire, blades raised to decapitate the No Life King.

Everyone's eyes opened wide as he did that, he moved so fast that it was hard seeing more then a blur.

Alucard fired another bullet at Ranma, who once again phased out and dodged it.

Ranma moved in zigzag as he dodged the two following bullets. The last had actually brushed against his shirt. Ranma gritted his teeth as he moved closer to the damned vampire, fully intent on killing the thing that had tried to shoot Ceres.

Ranma closed the gap between them and with a swift kick towards the vampire's hand disarmed him. The gun flew through the room and clattered to the floor next to the wall.

Without losing the initiative Ranma stabbed the vampire through his chest. He then made an upwards slash with the other sword, digging deep into the vampire's flesh.

He twisted the weapons to make maximal damage before kicking him backwards so that he could pull out the swords from the undead body. Alucard stumbled backwards, but didn't fall to the floor in a pile of ash as Ranma expected.

Alucards smirk grew wider and showed his elongated teeth. The wounds seemed to simply disappear, and Ranma got the feeling that this wasn't perhaps one of his most brilliant ideas.

Alucard moved like lightning and buried his fist into Ranma's gut, he was too surprised to react in time. Alucard then simply swatted him away as if he was a fly. Ranma slammed into the solid stone wall, the impact creating a crater in the wall. The swords clattered to the floor next to him.

"ALUCARD!" Integra screeched and was about to fire her pistol into the insane vampire when something slammed into him.

Ranma was standing behind Alucard with one hand around the vampire's neck, choking him, which would have worked if the vampire needed air.

Alucard lashed out and struck Ranma in the middle of the face, but to his surprise and all the others shock, he didn't even flinch.

The pressure around Alucard's increased to the degree that you could hear it snap. Ranma's other hand was hitting the vampire between his shoulder blades with enough force to crack stone.

He then let go and backed away as Alucard tried to hit him again, and with a roundhouse kick aimed at Alucards head sent the vampire straight into the same wall he himself had hit only a few moments before.

The crater in the wall visibly enlarged.

Ranma launched himself towards the downed form of the vampire and began to pummel him with literary hundreds of blows.

Alucard ducked and kicked the human across the floor. He twisted in the air and landed gracefully on his feet, and as soon as he did that he launched himself back towards Alucard.

They began to trade blows at an unbelieving pace, blocking and dodging their opponent's strikes gracefully.

Alucard's smirk grew wider as he managed to deflect a blow aimed at his throat and with the opening created, returned with one of his own. The human twisted his body and took the blow to his shoulder instead of his throat.

The human was good, almost as good as Judas Priest. Good fights were hard to find, but he decided to end the little game now.

Both combatants kicked off each other to gain some room.

Alucard launched himself at the human, with too this point unparalleled speed, and was about to bury his fist into his chest to pull out his still beating heart.

To his extreme surprise the human managed to lean to the right, and avoided his strike.

The human turned around, so that he had his back to the vampire's front, and grabbed the outstretched arm. He pulled the vampire's arm forward and slammed his elbow backwards, right into the moving vampire.

Every single bone in his chest seemed to turn into small splinters, the lungs were ripped to shreds as the fragments pushed deeper through his body and his spine snapped apart in numerous places.

Alucard was just thankful that he wasn't human, or that he needed his lungs, because if he had been, it would have hurt like hell, or more likely he would have been a corpse…. An inanimate corpse.

He followed up the devastating blow with a roundhouse kick that sent the vampire across the room, over a cursing Integra who threw herself to the floor as not to be hit by the vampire cannonball wannabe, and out through the closed window. Ranma dived too the floor and grabbed the handle of one of his swords and launched himself outside to pursue the vampire.

Ranma landed gracefully, raising the weapon and looking around for the vampire. Ranma still didn't know exactly how strong his opponent was, but if the speed and strength were any indication he was a formidable opponent, much better then the vampire he had fought before.

He was extending his senses, trying to find any trace of the vampire.

He didn't even need to try.

Alucard was impressed with the human, not even Judas Priest would have managed to fight him without his blades. Even though he would have loved to continue this fight, he had a vampire near his master that needed to be dealt with.

It wasn't really a surprise that he had attacked at once without saying a single word, the vampire he had felt was quite strong, definitely not any of those weak freaks he had dealt with lately. She wasn't anywhere near as strong as himself or Incognito, but enough to make him serious.

Then he had been surprised at the intervention from the human, he had barely materialized before he had a dozen or so silver daggers in his chest.

That was when he first noticed him, an unfamiliar kid wearing the formal Hellsing uniform.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what was happening, they were one way or another trying to influence Integral. It wouldn't have been to hard if they vampire was as powerful as he suspected. He decided to take the guy out in another way, even if he had picked up a thing or two the last five hundred years he wasn't really a hand to hand fighter.

It was time to pull a trick out of his hat.

He had many tricks….. He did have a big hat.

He unlocked one of his seals and turned himself into liquid darkness once again.

Even though it was dark outside, the only light coming from smashed windows, he thought that at all of the sudden it seemed to grow darker and colder.

Ranma looked around, sword raised in preparation to defend himself. He could feel a little bit of his confidence disappear.

A shadow seemed to surround him, and a single crimson eye appeared and looked at him. It was different from Ceres eyes though, where hers were friendly and warm, these were cold and menacing.

He looked around quickly, and could see more of the red eyes looking back at him. The shadows seemed to draw closer, and small tendrils of it sipped out and tried to lash onto him.

He cut them apart with a couple of swift sweeps of his sword, but the shadows were still drawing closer, they stretched as far as he could see.

He could hear a spine-chilling laugh, one that would freeze the bravest men in place…. It was almost as bad as Kodachi's.

The shadow had practically engulfed him before he decided to move.

He crouched and then jumped as far and as long as he could, he then somersaulted and kicked off a tree to gain additional speed. He flew over the shadow and slashed out with his sword, kicked off another tree and repeated the progress until the shadow began to withdraw.

Ranma landed on the top branches of another tree and looked around for the shadow.

Alucard frowned as the kid jumped a distance that wasn't humanly possible. His fear aura hadn't worked as he had planned.

He quickly rematerialized and began to think out a new course. He decided that enough is enough, it was time to bring out the big guns.

It might be overkill, but to hell with that.

His face split up in an insane grin, his teeth visibly enlarged and his hair grew in length and seemed to move as if a wind was blowing through it.

Integra was in danger and he had the full intention of ripping apart that annoying human and worthless vampire.

He lunched himself at the tree where he could feel the aura of the human, fully intending to rip him apart and drink his blood.

He slashed out with his hand, but was disappointed that the human managed to dodge in time.

The tree didn't have the same luck and exploded into splinters.

The next slash Ranma countered with his sword, sparks flying everywhere.

They began to trade blows at speeds that shouldn't be possible.

"ALUCARD!" Integra screamed at the vampire that in the distance was fighting her nephew.

He didn't seem to hear anything. She had no idea how her number one freak killing machine and only nephew had ended up in a fight with each other. One second Ranma was talking to her and the next he was in mortal combat with Alucard.

They were to far away to hear her, and she turned around and was about to run out of her office and outside.

The others were still shocked, but as Integra began out run out the snapped out of it and followed her.

Walter was quite unlike his usual self and cursed the entire time. They ran down the numerous flights of stairs, through the main hall and out the door.

She looked around, before running as fast as she possibly could towards the small forest that was located on the Hellsing grounds.

Following closely behind was Walter, Victoria and the Queen. Integra was about to ask the Queen if she could go back to the manor but was interrupted before she even could open her mouth.

"I am going with you, no arguments." She said and nodded towards the forest.

Integra only nodded and turned back to the issue at hand. She couldn't find a trace of the vampire or her nephew.

"Where is he?" Victoria asked, worry clear in her voice.

"I don't kno…" Walter said but was cut of in the middle of his statement by a loud explosion.

"There." Walter said and took off towards the explosion, followed by the others.

Ranma gasped as another blow hit home. He kicked himself away to gain some room to regain his breath.

The fight had begun to go downhill for him, his opponent was both stronger and faster then him, and he had to use every bit of his skill to keep up with the damned vampire.

But the damage he inflicted just faded away, while the wounds he got took longer to heal.

Ranma spit out a little blood from his busted lip, while thinking out a course of action.

His blade was out of reach, he was forced to drop it to block a strike meant to remove his head, and fighting with his fists didn't solve anything.

He didn't get the time to finish his thoughts, the vampire closed the distance in a blink of an eye and aimed a strike at his chest. Ranma leaned to the side and managed to avoid most of it, but he could still feel a couple of ribs crack as the blow hit.

Through painful gasps he managed to call out "Katchu-tenchi-amaguriken."

Hundreds of blows rained down on the vampires back, before he kicked him away with a roundhouse kick. Ranma began to move towards his dropped sword, this was a fight he would need every bit of help he could get.

Alucard flipped in the air and stopped in place, he turned slowly towards the human and grinned an insane smile.

He pulled his hand backwards and formed what looked like a black flame in his palm.

With a casual flick of his hand the ball of flame shot forwards towards Ranma.

Ranma threw himself to the ground as the fireball flew over his head, he could feel the hair stand up because of the energy. Whatever that was, he should keep the hell away from it.

He wondered if he should try a mouko-takabisha, but he didn't have the time needed to gather the energy.

He pushed himself of the ground as he could feel another fireball head towards him. The flame impacted and exploded in a black flash.

He tried to grab his sword but another fireball made him jump away.

The vampire was keeping him from his sword, and it would only be a matter of time before he was hit. He was tired as hell, but the vampire didn't seem worse for wear.

He needed to take him down, and fast. A thought struck him and he began to prepare.

Alucard frowned as he couldn't hit the annoying human, he jumped away every time.

He had at least managed to keep him away from that blasted silver sword.

The human stopped and tried to regain his breath, he was exhausted. Alucard began to gather energy in his palm again, making it a little stronger then usual so the human might be caught in the blast.

He threw his arms forward and flung the black burning fireball forwards.

A shout from his right caught his attention.

They had reached the edge of the forest and the sounds of battle reached their ears. Integra looked backwards and could in the distance see some armed Hellsing soldiers run at full speed towards them.

Integra turned back towards the forest and began to run, full speed and right towards the battle. Ceres was running directly on her right, a look of extreme worry on her face.

They came into a clearing, trees lying strewn on the ground.

Facing each other were Ranma and Alucard, Ranma looking the worst of the two with torn clothes and with blood running down his face. Ranma was clutching his side in pain.

Alucard flung a black fireball forwards and both Integra and Ceres could see that there was no chance he would be able to dodge it.

"RANMA!" Both women screamed trying to warn him. He looked surprised at them before disappearing in a black fireball.

The blast threw them to the ground, and when they managed to stand up they could only watch as black flames burned were Ranma had been a moment ago. There was no chance that anyone had managed to survive that.

Victoria had a look of terror on her face, while Integra a furious expression directed at Alucard.

Aucard shifted his gaze from the raging inferno to Integra and the vampire who had slumped to the ground. He had felt as the human's aura had flickered and died, and now he had only to deal with the vampire.

Ceres expression of terror quickly shifted to one of absolute anger and fury. She had a snarl on her face that clearly showed that she was a creature of the night.

Her fangs hand become visibly longer and her eyes were blazing with crimson light, her fingernails had grown longer and resembled claws. She took a step towards Alucard with no other intention then ripping him to shreds, it didn't matter that he was her master.

Alucard smirked as the other vampire began to walk towards him, the promise of death was shining brightly in her crimson eyes.

Another black fireball began to manifest in his hand. He was about to throw it at the advancing vampire but then something totally unexpected happened.

An extremely strong aura flared up behind him. To anyone who could read a person's aura even remotely that aura burned with enough energy to rival the sun.

"Hey, Red!" A voice yelled from behind him.

He had barely enough time to turn around and see a cocky smile before his nerves were assaulted with something he didn't think he could feel anymore, pain.

Integra had time to see Ranma appearing with a sword in his hands, and Alucard explode in a cloud of gore before she was thrown to the forest ground besides Walter and the Queen.

Ranma could see the fireball head straight towards him and then he heard the yell. Knowing full well that the fireball was about to hit him he turned towards the voice with a played look of surprise before he could feel it was time to move.

The yell would actually help him as it drew the vampire's attention. As the fireball was about a meter in front of him he jumped straight up in the air, and a moment later could hear the explosion under him.

As soon as that happened he used the umi-sen-ken, and masked his aura completely. He shifted his weight a little and that changed his momentum. He landed softly and quietly a small distance away from the burning inferno.

He limped toward his dropped sword and picked it up. Ranma then moved stealthily around the vampire, or as stealthily as you could manage with an almost broken leg.

He gritted his teeth at the pain, it hurt like the dickens. Bruises and cuts were covering his body, and it would probably take some time before he was fit for fight again.

He stood behind the vampire who was looking at Victoria and the others.

He began to pull in as much ki as he could, while still maintaining the umi-sen-ken.

Along the length of the sword a vacuum blade began to form. He had modified the original technique so that he could use it with a sword instead. The size and strength of the blast was enormous compared to the old one.

The concept was to use inverted ki, and that created a devastating vacuum blade, it could cut through almost anything with ease.

Normally the ki that was used was lost, because you only threw the vacuum and not the ki. The reason for that was if you tried to channel that energy through your body it reacted violently with your natural ki. Inverted ki had totally different properties, and acted totally different from normal ki.

The first time he had tried the modified technique he had barely avoided being ripped apart. That was the reason he could only use it with a sword or such, he couldn't let the inverted ki come in contact with his normal ki, the reactions would become quite… lethal.

Right now, lethal was good, lethal was very good.

He dropped they umi-sen-ken and prepared to throw off his attack. Ranma could see that the vampire tensed up, and he decided to draw the things attention, just to see his reaction.

"Hey, Red!" He yelled out.

Everyone turned their gaze towards him, and their eyes widened. He could understand them, he was probably quite the sight.

His clothes were torn and burned, he had blood trailing down his face, he had a visible battle aura that would have put Saffron's to shame, and probably the most catching thing was the tree foot blade of pure darkness he was wielding.

"First class demon god assault blade" He whispered silently, but strangely, everyone present heard the words.

He slashed out, and Ranma suspected that the vampire didn't even notice what hit him.

The black blade, with a small vacuum edge, travelled the distance and slammed right into the vampire's chest.

Ranma and all the other were thrown backwards from the backlash.

Alucard's entire chest and stomach seemed to just explode in a cloud of blood and entrails. The blade didn't stop there though, it continued forwards through the forest, cutting down threes as it went.

Ranma looked at the downed vampire, wobbled slightly and then fell backwards and hit the ground with a loud thud. He groaned loudly.

As he fell to the ground he managed to hit his head on a rock.

The rock didn't have a fighting chance and shattered.

Alucard didn't know what the hell that thing had been he was hit with but one thing was sure, it hurt as hell. And apart from that he was injured, but it wasn't his body he was thinking of, it was his energy reserves.

Whatever that attack had been, it had not only blown apart his body it had also literally eaten away on his energy reserves.

He began to pull himself together, both physically and mentally.

That was when he found out another thing about that attack, it was not as easy healed as normal wounds.

He cursed the human, or whatever that thing was, and began to reform his body from the liquid darkness.

With an inaudible groan he was back in one piece, and once again ready to fight…. More or less.

He took a step towards the downed human.

Ranma looked from his place on the ground at the advancing vampire. He had an insane smirk on his lips, and he looked clearly amused at Ranma's predicament. Using his sword as support he slowly stood up on wobbly feet. Ranma looked at the vampire before he coughed up some blood.

He whipped away the trail of blood with the back of his hand and then calmly raised his blade and took a defensive stance.

"What the hell does it take to kill you? Why the hell can't you just die?" Ranma asked the advancing vampire with a groan.

The vampire's smirk disappeared and he got serious.

"Strangely, I wanted to ask the same thing." He said and prepared to launch an attack on the human.

Ranma prepared to fight once again, but he knew that it looked grim, he could barely stand straight, much less fight off an insane vampire.

He raised his fist in the final killing blow, but he never got time to deliver it.

A shadow tackled him to the ground, and pinned the vampire under it. Alucard looked up and he froze at once.

Victoria was about to launch herself at Alucard when a fast shadow moved past her and launched itself forwards.

The vampire was tackled to the ground, and now everyone got a good look at the thing.

Pinning the vampire down was a black panther that was growling loudly, teeth and crimson eyes glowing in the pale moonlight.

The panther growled before stepping down from the vampire. It began to circle the vampire slowly, looking like it was just waiting for the vampire to try something.

Alucard looked at the feline as it silently stalked around him, the thing was practically radiating dark energy. He recognised it as an vampire's familiar, and in his current position he was reluctant to attack it.

One thing he thought was strange was the fact that it was about as strong as his own, but that it radiated more demonical, and much less shadow energy then what should be normal.

It was definitely not normal as far as he knew, and he didn't want to attack it now. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, not even himself, but the fight had actually taken quite a lot out of him.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the area, only being interrupted by the low growls from the panther.

Ranma saw the demonic feline from hell, and this time he was actually close to the truth, and began to edge away.

He had his eyes firmly planted on the ground and was moving towards the small group. If he didn't get out of there he would risk the Neko-ken, and that was something he really wanted to avoid.

He moved up next to Integra and Ceres, making sure he didn't see or hear the bloody thing.

The silence was then broken by a rather pissed of Integra.

Alucard looked from the feline familiar to the gathered group. He was met with the expression of a pissed of Integra.

The clenching of her fists, the noticeable twitch in her eye and the bulging vein on her forehead showed that it really was Integra van Hellsing and not some slave controlled by vampiric powers.

No one could fake Integra's I-am-really-pisssed-and-I-will-go-berzerk-if-you-give-me-the-slighest-reason mood. He got the sinking feeling that he had done something rather stupid, not that he would admit it to anyone.

"Alucard, please tell why you just tried to kill my nephew." She said in a silky voice, but you could see that she was visibly controlling herself from jumping and ripping his head off.

Alucard shifted his gaze to the young man who was wearing the remains of a Hellsing uniform. As he got a closer look on the group he could see that the vampire he had felt earlier was none other then Ceres Victoria, the Police-Girl.

"You are dead." He stated conspicuously while looking at Ceres. Right now it was every man to himself and he needed to get Integra's attention from him.

"Of course she is dead, she is a vampire." Integra threw back angrily.

Alucard shifted his gaze from Ceres to Integra.

"I don't mean undead, I mean dead. My link with her was severed, and the only way for that to happen is if she's dead… permanently" He said seriously.

Everybody looked at Ceres, who shifted uncomfortably under everyone's gaze. Well, everybody but Ranma who was still trying to keep a good distance between himself and the cat.

"I am not going to turn into dust!" She yelled after a while of silence.

Everybody turned toward Alucard once again.

"I sensed an unknown vampire near your office, and I thought that you would have reported to me if you had a friendly vampire with you. I presumed that it was hostile and was about to terminate it when _he_ intervened." Alucard pronounced the word with clear irritation, and motioned to the young van Hellsing looking straight at the ground.

"And tell me why you then attacked him instead." Integra was calming down a little, or at least as much as the situation allowed.

"When a noticed a person wearing the Hellsing uniform I presumed it was someone trying to take over Hellsing." He said and looked at the group in front of him.

"I see…. And when did this so called "severing of the link" happen?" Integra said and looked at Ceres and Alucard. She didn't believe the vampire to one hundred precent yet.

"He is right, I can't sense him anymore." Ceres interrupted as she tried to call her master.

"Three days ago during my mission." Alucard said simply.

"That was when you were attacked in the alley." Integra said and looked at the fledgling vampire.

"Yes, I was wounded really badly, could that be the reason? I wasn't strong enough to maintain the link?" Ceres asked uncomfortable.

"No simple wounds would be able to stop the link formed between a vampire and his sire. Only the master would be able to break the link, and I did not do anything the like." Alucard said and seemed deep in thought.

"And another thing I find strange, I didn't think you were nearly as strong as to be able to call forth a familiar." He said and motioned towards the panther that was still stalking around the elder vampire.

"That is mine?" Victoria asked in surprise and looked at the feline. The panther looked at Ceres with questioning eyes.

"Will it to you and see what it does, Police-Girl." Alucard said simply.

She did as she was told and the cat stopped it's stalking, it turned towards Ceres, but not before turning and growling at Alucard one final time.

Integra's lips twitched a little at that, but she was still rather angry with the elder vampire.

The panther moved up to the group and began to rub itself around the legs of Ceres, like a normal housecat that wanted its owner's attention.

Then it stopped and shifted it gaze to Ranma, it tensed up and prepared for a jump. Ranma still looking at the ground didn't even notice.

With a loud, playful _mewwwwwww _it jumped and tackled Ranma to the ground. Everyone could hear the panther purr loudly as it was lying on top of the martial artist/agent/vampire hunter.

Integra just wondered why her nephew tensed up and began to hyperventilate.

Ranma had closed his eyes and was hyperventilating, trying everything do forget he was near a c-ca… furry thing. He recalled some meditations techniques he had learnt Doc Tofu that were meant to completely empty his mind.

"Demonicfelinefromhelllyingontopofme,sharpclawsandpointyteethIimgonnadie"

They didn't work.

He braced himself for the rush of uncontrollable fear he knew would come. It was strange really, he feared the _fear_ of cats more then he actually _feared_ the cats.

After a couple of seconds, he realized he hadn't turned into a cat, and he slowly opened an eye.

Staring back at him was a set of puzzled crimson eyes. He fought down his first reaction to run off, and just stared back. While he was nervous and afraid, it wasn't nearly as bad as it used to be.

As nothing happened he managed to get his breathing rate back to normal.

"You fight me, but then you appear to be scared to death by an overgrown housecat? How demeaning." Alucard said and shook his head.

The familiar turned his head and growled at the vampire.

"I have a serious c-c-cat phobia." Ranma said and motioned to panther lying on him.

It turned it's head and looked back at Ranma, and after only a short while it began to purr. Ranma sweated nervously at this, but then remembered that it meant that cats were happy.

While it appeared that he didn't turn into a cat when in the presence of felines anymore, why he couldn't understand, he was still more or less mortally afraid of the things. As long as the cat was happy, and didn't attack him, he was happy.

The Queen looked at the gathered group, and sighed.

Integra was trying to incinerate Alucard with her eyes, Victoria was standing next to Ranma, who was still trapped under the cat, Walter who was standing in what seemed like a relaxed pose, but the monofilament wires in his hands gave him away.

The old vampire himself was standing with what appeared to be a bored expression, but you could see that he cast interested looks at Victoria and Ranma.

She sighed again and shook her head.

"We should perhaps go back to the mansion, don't you think so?" She said and

Ranma jerked his head quickly up and down, but still looked into the eyes of the panther laying on top pf him.

Integra nodded, but still kept her eyes on the vampire.

"Can someone please get the cat off me?" Ranma asked and gulped as the feline moved its head closer to his own.

To his surprise, it stood up and walked away on its own accord. It walked up to Victoria and began rub itself against the vampire's legs. She herself leaned down and scratched the cat behind its ears.

Ranma stood up and aloud crack was heard in the clearing. He froze immediately, a look of pain flashed across his eyes.

"Ouch." He said tearfully before slumping to the ground.

Victoria and Integra rushed over and looked him over quickly, before casting dirty looks at Alucard.

"Where are you hurt?" Integra asked as she bent down to make sure he didn't die.

"Everywhere." He asked and slowly sat up with a painful expression.

"Don't move, you will only injure yourself more." Victoria said and carefully pressed her hands against his chest to stop him from moving.

"I'm just a little bit bruised, nothing serious." He said and tried to focus his gaze on something.

"No you are not, you are going to the infirmary." Integra said sharply.

"I've had worse, it is nothing a good night of sleep…." He was interrupted by a loud growl.

"And some food won't solve." He continued and looked at the gathered group.

"You are going to the infirmary…." Integra began but was cut off.

"After I get sleep and food." He finished, and once again tried to stand up, this time a little more successful.

"You must check up your injuries." Integra said sternly.

Ranma sighed and then pulled up his sleeve to show her the almost completely faded bruises.

"I just need some sleep and they will be gone by the morning." He sighed and pulled the sleeve down again.

Integra just shook her head at her nephew's stubborn streak.

"But you go to the infirmary the first thing in the morning, you hear that?" Integra said and stared at him sternly.

Ranma nodded and began to walk away, Victoria supporting him, the panther was slowly walking behind the two.

Integra turned to the vampire who was standing and frowning at the retreating pair. Integra was not happy with her vampire right now, and she tried to come up with anything to punish him. Locking him inside the dungeon for the next forty years or so would definitely save her many migraines, but unfortunately he was needed. Integra then noticed that parts of his coat were actually a little damaged and dirty.

She looked back at Ranma with a frown, there was something he wasn't telling her…. And what the hell had that thing been he had thrown at Alucard? It looked like some of Alucard's own attacks.

Ranma and Ceres made their way back to the mansion, and as they walked up the steps to the mansion they could see the Hellsing soldiers run towards the forest at full speed.

Ceres didn't call them over, let Integra deal with the explanations, she had more important things to do.

Ranma groaned a little a he took a step, he had shifted almost all his weight to his right foot, but it still hurt as hell when moving his body.

While he was injured, it was nothing serious he'd had definitely had worse back in Nerima on daily basis, it was the fact that he burned ki like there was no tomorrow when facing the damned vampire. He had used everything he had in this fight, and in the end even had to resort to use the ki that was keeping his body alive, while he hadn't used all that ki he was only a small way from dieing. Without proper ki his entire body hurt like the dickens.

Ceres opened the door leading to her room while still supporting the half sleeping Ranma. The door closed behind her and she made sure that the cat was left outside, Ranma still was nervous around the feline. She made him sit down in the sofa and then moved to her coffin. She pressed the concealed button and the lid rose to the ceiling, revealing a large comfortable looking bed.

Victoria felt as a tingle went up her spine and she spun around to face the door. Phasing through the door was the panther, who stared at her questionable before walking up to were Ranma was sitting. She walked up to the panther and grabbed it around the head, and began to drag it out the door. The cat didn't cooperate and just sat down, she thanked her vampire-strength for being able to move the animal.

"Stay out." She whispered quickly before closing the door.

Ranma could feel the ki reserves slowly regenerate, but it was going incredibly slowly.

He calmed himself down, closed his eyes, and extended his senses, feeling the natural chi around him. While there wasn't much in this area, under the ground and surrounded by stone, it was enough. He redirected a small trickle of the chi into himself to help the regeneration. His breathing became less laboured, and a little of the stress on his face disappeared.

He didn't do this very often, because his natural regeneration was many times faster then refilling his ki with chi, but right know he needed every bit of help he could get.

Not that he would admit it to anyone though.

Ranma slowly stood up from the sofa and tiredly removed the remnants of what had once been a coat and boots.

Victoria turned back to Ranma and could see that he was removing his boots, with some difficulty. Normally she would have laughed as he wobbled as he tried removing his boots, but right now she was in to much worry to laugh.

With a final effort the uncooperative boots landed on the floor and Ranma fell backwards into the arms of Victoria.

"Sorry, I tripped." Ranma said tiredly as he stood back up.

She could see that his eyes were closing slowly, and he didn't quite manage to suppress a yawn. With a last scratch of his neck he mumbled a little, before turning towards the sofa.

Victoria managed to redirect the martial artist that right now, thanks to extreme exhaustion, had the same mental powers as the standard zombie.

"Sleeeeep" He said in a low monotone voice that creped Victoria out a bit, it sounded exactly as the Hollywood-zombie's call for "braaaiins".

He shuffled to the coffin/bed and with a final yawn fell face first into the mattress, he was asleep half a second later.

Victoria covered him with a blanket before a tingle once again went up her spine. She turned around and could see the panther once again stare at her, it then shifted its gaze towards Ranma before refocusing it on Ceres.

"What?" She whispered irritated.

The panther just walked up to Ceres and sat down right before her, staring her straight in her eyes. Victoria was slightly unnerved by the animals behaviour, and especially by those eyes.

"Stop staring at me!" She whispered violently, and was surprised as the thing stood up and began to circle her in much the same manor as it had circled Alucard.

That was something she definitely didn't like.

"Stop it this instaUFFF!" She said as the animal pounced on her from behind, tackling her to the mattress right onto Ranma's outstretched arm.

Ranma miraculously didn't wake up, but he did turn around and laid his other arm across her chest, trapping her in a strong embrace.

The panther then jumped up onto the bed and Ceres could have sworn the damn thing smirked at her. It moved up to Ranma to nuzzle his cheek, before turning to Victoria to repeat the process.

The panther then moved up past their head to lie down, creating a warm pillow for her and Ranma to rest on. The thing began to purr contentedly, and Ceres just shrugged at the oddness of the situation before pulling a blanket over her and Ranma. Truth was that she definitely didn't mind the current sleeping arrangements, but she was a bit confused by the cat's strange behaviour.

She herself yawned before giving Ranma a quick peck on the cheek. She settled down to sleep, the morning was steadily drawing closer.

There was a knock on the door and Nodoka quickly logged out of her laptop. It was an old habit so as not to let vital intelligence fall into the wrong hands. Not that some half-translated stock report would be of any use to anyone, but once a spy always a spy.

She didn't work for any intelligence agency any longer, but that didn't mean she would let her skills get rusty, and ten years of doing nothing would have been incredibly boring.

She walked down the stairs and opened the door, being greeted by a man wearing a grey delivery-boy uniform with the words World Express on the back. He was carrying a small box and a pad.

"Nodoka Saotome?" He asked while looking down on the pad.

"Yes?" She asked as the man looked up.

"I have a delivery to you, please sign here" He asked and handed her the pad.

She quickly took the pad and pen and signed the paper.

"Here you are, have a good day." He said and handed her the box and then walked down the steeps and small path leading to her house.

She looked down on the box and then stepped back inside, closing the door behind her. She walked into the living room and placed the box on the table.

She opened it carefully and peeked inside, but could only see bits of white material that was meant to prevent damage to fragile goods.

She began to search the inside but came up with nothing, so she turned it upside down and let everything fall to the table. She looked through everything but came up with nothing, and was about to throw the box away when she noticed a letter stuck to the bottom with pieces of tape.

She removed it and looked at the address, being quite happy to see that it was from Ranma.

She quickly opened it and began to read it.

Hi mom.

Sorry I haven't wrote you, but I have been rather busy. You where right, London is quite an interesting city, and I think I have managed to fit in nicely. Strangely enough my curse has seemed to be inactive in the world's most rainy country, ironic isn't it?. The only thing that I really had to adjust to was the strange food, but it can have something to do with my own culinary skills. In other words that meant I lived on instant ramen and cornflakes for a month. On another note, I managed to get a job as a martial arts instructor so I have something to do during the day. I also am trying to get a college diploma, as unbelievingly as it is I am going to school of my own free will. Miss Hinako would have a fit. My boss offered me a new position thanks my developing language skills, and sent me on a course to Russia. I am taking your advice and not focusing my entire life on martial arts anymore. I have managed to meet a good deal of new people including, and now I know you are going to be ecstatic, a girl. And no, we are merely friends, and I am quite content with the way it is…. For now. I haven't talked to my aunt yet, I didn't want to turn up as a freeloader by her door, so I decided to get an apartment and job first, after that I have simply forgot it. I will try to see her soon. If you want to talk to me I have an address on the back of this letter, but please be careful that the NWC doesn't find out. Well, I don't think there is anything more to say, apart that I miss you, mom. Please give me my greetings to Doc Tofu, Kasumi, and Happosai and if you see them thank Hiroshi and Dagasuki from me.

Ranma.

PS. I am not sending this letter with the post because I am not entirely sure the NWC will be checking your mail to see if I send you anything.

PPS. My cooking has become better, so don't worry.

PPPS. No, you can't expect grandkids within a couple of years…. and I am totally serious.

PPPPS. After you greet Happosai, please give him two hard bashings from me. One for making me read the beginning of his book, and the other for everything he has done in my absence.

Nodoka smiled as she read the letter, it seemed that her son finally had found his own path. She had just finished reading it when another knock on the door made her go to the door.

She quickly placed the letter inside her kimono and then opened the door. She was met by Akane who had a strained smile on her face.

"Can I speak with you, Mrs Saotome?" She asked weakly.

Nodoka only nodded and led her to the livingroom. Akane sat down and Nodoka into the kitchen to some tea.

She carefully poured Akane then herself a cup of tea.

"What can I do for you miss Tendo?" Nodoka said and Akane winced at the formality in her voice.

"I want to talk to Ranma, I wish he would return." She said and almost begged.

"I am afraid that is impossible, Miss Tendo." She sadi calmly and placed the cup of tea in front of her.

"B-but I really miss him, I want to apologise." She said and her voice trembled a little.

"I can't do anything, my son had chosen to begin a new life somewhere else." She said simply.

"Please, I r-really miss him, I j-just want to talk to him to explain." She said and she could barely conceal a sob.

"My son has left the country, and I've had a hard time contacting him myself. He appears to have continued his life, and I advice you to do the same."

"I-I u-understand." She said and stood up.

"Thank you for your hospitality." She said and dejectedly walked out the door.

Nodoka only shook her head in dismay, the young Tendo's realisation had come to late.

**Author's Notes.**

Okay, okay I know it has been I long time since I updated this, but I have three good excuses.

First, school has been a major pain in the ass, even more so then normally.

Second, my inspiration went missing and I only recently found it hiding under my bed.

Three, ummm… I've been busy with school? What, already used that? Hmmm…. Okay, hmm… Believe me, I have some extremely good excuse, I just can't think of one right now.

Well, in either case about two weeks ago I had 23 pages of text and only needed to add a few things, but I thought it would be a good length for a chapter. But as I wrote I added almost an additional 20 pages of text, the battle with Alucard became quite long, longer then I had first predicted.

I have tried to listen to the critique in the reviews, and I hope you like the results. My next project, before I continue with either this fic or Halo of the Hero, will be to rewrite the early chapters of Halo of the Hero, and maybe spell-check this story. I just read chapter 1-4 on the Halo of the Hero and I almost had a heart attack, the grammar, spelling and flow of the story just sucked. And this is self-critique coming from someone who has an ego almost as big as Ranma's. It needs to be changed (I don't mean my ego).

If you think this author's notes seems strange you might understand if I tell you that when I wrote this it was four in the morning and I hadn't slept for almost 20 hours.

Constructive critique is not only accepted, but extremely appreciated. If you see a reoccurring grammatical error tell me, or I will never even notice it.

If someone wants to contact me for whatever reason, my MSN-messenger is

A u t h o r underline X e r x e z h o t m a i l . c o m

Xerxez- Signing off and going to sleep.


	7. Aww Hell! There is two of them!

**Disclaimer: **Insert standard disclaimer here…. Okay, okay, I don't own this, I just write it.

**Changing Path**

**Chapter 7-Aww Hell, there's two of them!**

Ceres eyes fluttered open and she just lay still a moment. The lid of her coffin was open, but even then, she was comfortably warm under her blanket. She looked down and realized that the source of warmth was a very sleepy Ranma that was hugging her tightly.

She remembered the amount of bruises he'd had the prior evening and decided that it wasn't perhaps the smartest idea to lay on top of him. So thinking she began to carefully remove the arm around her waist, and then the arm around her shoulders.

She then carefully moved away from her current position to lie down next to him instead. The vampire stretched and yawned to drive the drowsiness away. As she looked on the sleeping form of Ranma she though she could definitely get used to the new sleeping arrangements.

Ceres looked carefully at Ranma, searching for any obvious signs of injury from the prior night, but the bruises had seemingly vanished, the only thing remaining was a large semi-healed gash on his left arm, and a smaller one on over his cheek and part of his throat.

Victoria stared transfixed at the wound and dried blood surrounding it, and in a groggy haze leaned forwards to kiss it. She didn't really know why, but she was kissing his neck and cheek were the wound was, slowly licking up the dried blood, making sure Ranma didn't wake up.

Even when it was dried up, the blood tasted delicious to the vampire, especially since she had refused to eat more then was absolutely necessary. Unknowingly to Ceres her irises had shifted, becoming thinner, more predatory, and slightly ferial.

She applied gentle suction to the part of the wound that was at widest and deepest, the Ceres Victoria part of her mind completely shutting off and letting her vampire-part take over, with only one goal in mind.

Feed.

The thin crust of dried blood over the wound gave away, and as she applied more suction, new, warm, _delicious, _blood flowed up, completely overwhelming her senses.

Her now extremely long canines bit softly into the skin of his neck, but not puncturing it, she was drinking of the red life flowing from the wound. It tasted unlike anything she had ever tasted before, and was so very filling.

The rational part of Victoria could feel the consuming hunger that had plagued her for so long disappear as she drank the fresh blood, but the vampire part of her mind that was in control couldn't get enough of the liquid, it needed more.

Her fangs elongated even more and her face had a frenzied expression. She shifted her face a little and brought the fangs so that they rested on the wound, her muscles clenched and she was about to plunge them into the soft flesh to get more of the sweet, delicious, coppery liquid. She closed her eyes in preparation to the feeling of euphoria that was about to rush through her veins.

As she was about to end the life of the man under her she felt him shift a little and then a pair of lips gently kissing her neck.

She opened her eyes in shock and could see that it was Ranma that was kissing her softly, apparently he was thinking she was just kissing him. A cold, sharp stab of dread pierced her heart, the dark cloud lifted from her mind.

"_NO!"_ She screamed in her mind and jerked away quickly from his neck.

She began to shudder in fear, she had almost _killed_ Ranma.

"Victoria?" Ranma asked with confusion in his voice.

"I almost bit you" She whispered softly.

"What?" He asked, it seemed like he hadn't woken up completely yet.

"I was hungry, and, and the smell of blood…." She was talking incoherently.

Ranma just sat up and hugged her, comforting her.

"I slipped, my instincts took over and I drank blood from the wound on your neck." She continued, and Ranma absentmindedly traced the outline of the wound in question with a finger.

"When there didn't come anymore blood I almost bit you, if you hadn't kissed me…." She finished.

"Nothing happened, I am okay, see?" He said and pushed her way a little to show her he was fine.

She looked at him, his clothes were looking like they would fall off, a reminder of the brutal fight the night before, his hair which was shoulder length fell in long, oily stripes because it hadn't been washed and combed in a few days.

He had a fading bruise over on one cheek, round black bags under his eyes, and a skin colour that was definitely paler then normal, something that had to do with the fact that Victoria had drunken a good amount of his blood.

All in all his appearance wasn't the best, but even then he managed to grin confidently at her.

"You are sure?" She asked a little uncertainly.

"I've been better, but all in all I'm fine." He said, yawned, and stretched one of his arms in the air and an audible crack was heard as the stiffness in his back was chased away.

"I almost bit you, you are sure you aren't feeling strange?" She asked just to make sure, and visibly began to relax.

"Naa, but will tell you if I begin to develop a dislike for garlic, Ceres." He said jokingly while stretching his other arm.

"That is a common misunderstanding that vampires dislike garlic, but if you say that you are all right I believe you." She said and looked him over once again. He only nodded in return.

"Now what's this with you being hungry? I thought that Hellsing was supposed to supply you with medical blood." He asked and looked at her with determined eyes.

Victoria seemed to shrink back a little and mumbled quietly.

"What was that?" Ranma asked as he didn't hear.

"I said they do, but I usually don't drink it unless I really need to." She said again a little louder.

"Why is that?" He asked in confusion.

"I just feel like I kill someone every time I do it." She said and looked at him.

"But you don't, its medical blood…" He said and trailed off.

She looked down at her hands and then replied softly.

"My father was a police officer… He died when I was just a little girl, he was shot." She said but didn't look at Ranma. She then felt as Ranma hugged her again and he could hear him whisper softly in her ear.

"Im sorry." He said and hugged her a bit more tightly.

"The hospital had a shortage of blood, so they couldn't treat him properly, he died of blood loss ten minutes before the helicopter from a nearby hospital could bring more…." She said and let a single tear fall at the painful memory.

Ranma's eyes widened in understanding, and he nodded to show that he understood.

"And now you feel that there are people that need it more then you." He said to her.

"Yes, I feel so disgusted by drinking it, it feels like I can't keep what small part of humanity I have left." She said and looked down at her hands.

"And that is the reason why you won't lose it." He said after a while, thinking carefully of what to say.

"But…" Ceres began but stopped.

In the dark room there was only silence.

"Did you know that the medical blood is supplied by the soldiers, by donation every month?" He asked the vampire who looked up in surprise.

"How do you know, and why haven't anybody told me?" She asked suddenly.

"I asked Integra about it, and probably due to the fact that no one really knew why you had problems drinking it." He said and shrugged his shoulders.

Silence fell again.

"I know it won't help much, but please drink enough so you won't be hungry, okay?" He said and hugged her again.

Ceres nodded and returned the hug.

"Okay, promise" She whispered into his ear.

Silence fell again, but this time it was interrupted by a low rumbling sound.

"mrrrrrrrr."

Both looked up and around the dark room, trying to pinpoint the sound.

"MRRRREOWWW!" It came from behind them, and Ranma only got time to see a faint shadow moving before something tackled him, throwing him off the coffin and onto the floor.

Lying on top of Ranma was Ceres familiar, its tail wrapped possessively around Ranma's leg, purring like a kitten, and slowly retracting and extracting its claws on his chest as cats used to do when they are comfortable.

"getitoffme." Ranma whimpered very low, and very fast.

Ceres just blinked and then tilted her head to the side, to take a look at Ranma's face.

"I don't think it wants to hurt you." Ceres said slowly.

"Like hell, it's large, it has teeth, its using it claws trying to slice me, and most importantly it is_ feline_." He whispered back.

"Try scratching it behind its ears, cats love that." Ceres said and sat back down on her coffin, looking on the display in not quite amusement, but close.

Ranma carefully moved his hand behind the cats left ear and scratched softly, making the large feline purr in satisfaction.

"See, it isn't dangerous, it likes you." Ceres said towards Ranma who nodded a little jerkily.

The cat suddenly stood up, stretched is entire body and then opened its mouth and let lose a long, loud, feline yawn. Ranma looked like he might be saved, but then the cat just tipped itself over and landed on the floor and Ranma with a loud _thud_. The cat began to purr loudly in a fashion making Ceres believe it was sleeping.

"Ranma?" Ceres said and tried to spot him under the large mass of feline familiar.

"Can't breathe…" Came a muffled voice from underneath the cat.

Ranma managed to worm his way out from underneath the cat and groggily stood up while rubbing his chest.

Ceres walked forwards and helped him stand straight, and when he could he silently backed away from the familiar sleeping on the floor.

He sat down on the edge of the coffin and continued to rub his chest. Ceres sat besides him and looked at him in worry.

In return Ranma just flashed her one of his cocky grins and laid his arm around her shoulder.

They sat like that for awhile before Ceres decided to speak up.

"Ranma?" She said determined.

"Um, yes?" He asked confused.

"Please take a shower, vampires have rather good senses, and you're both sweaty and covered in dirt." She said then, and Ranma just nodded dumbly.

Ceres stood up and dragged Ranma to his feet, before pushing him through the other door in the room.

"Shower, towel, shampoo." She pointed out the different things before going out the door.

Ranma just stared at the departing vampire before shaking his head, he would never figure women out. He discarded the remains of his tee-shirt, and Integra's trousers and threw them at the bench next to the door, before wrapping one of the fluffy white towels around his waist and headed for the shower.

He turned on the water and stuck out a hand to feel the temperature, it was cold.

He shrugged and stepped inside, feeling the curse activate, and the cold water chase away the drowsiness he was feeling.

He could hear a polite knock on the heavy door in the room outside, and then the screech of metal as it opened.

Just moments later he could hear a knock on the door to the bathroom.

"Are you in the shower now?" He heard Ceres ask through the door.

He opened the door to the shower stall and poked his head out to reply.

"Yes." He answered in a feminine voice.

The door opened and Victoria stepped inside with a bunch of towels in her arms, she quickly placed them on the same shelf he had taken his from only minutes ago, looked at Ranma and appeared startled for a second, before snapping out off it to answer his unspoken question.

"Walter on his weekly laundry check." She said.

"Ah, ok" He answered and retracted his head back into the shower.

He could hear the door close and then turned and shrugged.

After a while of showering he turned the temperature to warm and could feel himself change back. He once again wrapped the towel around his waist and walked over to the bench where he had placed his clothes, problem was, they were gone.

"Um, Ceres, have you seen my shirt and pants."

"I gave them to Walter, he wanted all dirty laundry." She said through the door.

"Ceres, those where the only clothes I have…" he said and trailed of.

Silence followed his statement.

"Umm, opps?" She tried meekly.

Ranma's left eye began to twitch and he then sighed in defeat.

"What should we do now?" He said out loud.

Along silence followed his statement.

"I have an idea…" Ceres voice from the other side of the door said and trailed off.

"I'm all ears." He said finally.

"Do you have a towel on?" Ceres asked and then waited for his reply.

"Yeah." He answered, confused with the question.

The only reply he got was the door opening and Ceres stepping inside. Ranma quickly jumped inside the shower again, only the head sticking out. Ceres walked up to the sink and turned the water on.

"What are you doin….AGHHHHH, THAT'S COLD!" The now female Ranma screamed as the glass of water hit him dead on. He fell forwards in shock and un-ceremonially landed on his ass.

Ceres turned around and walked out the door, and he could hear her scuffle around the room before returning to the bathroom.

His eyes widened.

"Absolutely not!" He said seriously.

"Ranma." She said in a warning tone.

"No" He answered.

"Ranma."

"No, I won't wear it, under absolutely no circumstances, you can't make me." He said and turned around with a huff.

"Please." She said and tried a female's most dreaded technique, the puppy-dog eyes.

"Ceres." Ranma said, but you could hear he was giving after.

"I am just trying to help you." She said softly.

"Oh, alright. But the first thing we do is go to my flat and get some clothes." He, currently she, said in defeat.

Seeing her bright smile almost made up for wearing it in Ranma's opinion.

Ceres gave the now shorter Ranma a quick peck on the cheek and then walked out of the bathroom. Ranma just shrugged and muttered to himself about the insanity that is a woman.

"Ceres." Ranma then called out after a while.

"Yes?" She replied from the other room.

"I am _not_ wearing the bra." He answered and then quickly tuned out any sound at all in case she tried to convince him otherwise.

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Integra stared out of the window in her office, the window had been repaired, and restoration of the stone wall would begin the next day. She was thinking over the events of the last night, she had met her nephew, her nephew had met Alucard, and somewhere along the way shit had just hit the fan.

She stepped back and sat down at her desk. She sighed then groaned loudly and let her head fall to the desk so her forehead was resting on the cold surface.

Apart from the fact that her nephew had been beaten into something that closet resembled a zombie, the police girl had apparently been set free from Alucard's servitude, something that wasn't good.

The Hellsing family had wards and ancients seals in place to bind Alucard to her bloodline, and as direct result had control not only over him, but over his fledgling vampire as well.

Alucard had said that the master-servant link had been completely and utterly severed, and he didn't know of any way to reconnect them. That meant that Victoria wasn't bonded to Alucard, and more importantly, to Hellsing any longer.

She knew that Victoria tried everything to remain human, and the possibility that she would betray Hellsing was small, she still didn't like the fact to have a free vampire roam around, what would happen if she fell into a bloodlust and there was no way to stop her?.

Years ago, before she was born, Alucard had almost destroyed the entire Hellsing institute in bloodlust, and only the blood wards had managed to lock him down in the dungeon for twenty years before he was realised once more.

How much she twisted and turned on the problem she couldn't find a way out, so she dropped it.

She wondered if she should go out to the shooting range, but dismissed the idea, she had the beginnings of a killer headache and didn't want to aggravate it further.

She then turned her attention to Alucard and his promised punishment.

Even if he was relatively unhurt, the attack on a member of the Hellsing family could simply not go unpunished.

But what should she do?

Seal him inside the basement for another twenty years? That would definitely be a sufficient punishment, and apart from being a good punishment it would ease her migraines until he was released again. Unfortunately he was needed badly, and then again, it wouldn't be the same without the twice damned vampire around.

No, imprisonment wasn't in question.

Perhaps she could ask Captain Bernadotte if the wild geese were in need of a moving target…

She quickly dismissed the idea, she didn't want the captain or any of his soldiers to accidentally fall down a flight of stairs due to living shadows with crimson eyes scaring them.

Besides that, physically harming the vampire was just barbaric, and he would usually get worse things during a mission, he would have forgot the punishment, and the reason behind it the next day.

No she needed do something that would get through the vampires thick skull, something he would remember a hundred years from now, and something that he would do almost everything to escape doing again.

But what, the vampire's ego was so big he wouldn't admit the punishment had bothered him…

Hmmm…. Ego….. Unforgivable….

She sat straight up as she realised the perfect way to ensure this didn't happen again in the foreseeable future….

"Alucard." She said simply.

It didn't take long for the no life king to arrive in her office, and as usual he was wearing his annoying smirk that always seemed to drive her wild…. And not in a positive way.

She had to resist the urge to throw the solid silver ash tray, custom made for that special purpose, at the vampire.

Alucard stopped as he saw the cold calculating eyes, it was her patented say-or-do-anything-and-I-will-rip-your-heart-out-with-a-rusty-spoon expression. Even Alucard knew it was better to keep quiet now, as she usually had something important to say.

"Your attack on my nephew was not only a disgrace to yourself, but to the entire of the Hellsing-institute itself, especially with her majesty as witness. Do you have any idea what long reaching consequences your action will lead to? When, and not if the Knights of the Round Table finds out about this, I will have to run a major damage control. Our position has been extremely fragile ever since the Incognito fiasco, even with the blessing of the Queen we aren't completely trusted anymore. Your timing was the absolute worst, now I will have answer questions about you becoming a berserker or renegade, and this could possibly be the thing that drives Hellsing to its grave." She stopped to regain her breath and looked at the vampire.

Good, the remark about him being a disgrace had gone through his thick skull.

"I cannot let this crime go unpunished, you understand this." She said coldly.

"Yes." He said as if it wasn't a large issue, just a small annoyance.

The small smile that crossed Integra's lips made him rethink his prior response.

"_I'm so screwed."_

"You will have to…."

_-----------------------------------------------------_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxx

"Ranma?" The fledgling vampire asked and turned around to look through the door to her quarters.

"You are sure there is no one there?" He, currently she, asked out.

"For the last time yes, now move it." Victoria said impatiently.

Ranma-chan muttered darkly as she stepped out into the corridor.

She was dressed in the completely same attire as Victoria, a blue Hellsing-uniform and black boots. It fitted Ranma almost perfectly, his girl form was only slightly shorter then Ceres, and only slightly less developed.

"You should get something practical to wear instead, something that doesn't restrict your movements like this freaking skirt." Ranma said and muttered darkly, while trying to pull down the garment so it could cover more then her hip.

Ranma failed miserably, and then just continued to mutter darkly.

"Now you know how I feel." Victoria answered back, while grabbing Ranma's arm strongly.

She began to walk towards the stairs, and Ranma obediently followed.

They walked through the corridors quickly, and made their way up the stairs.

Instead of moving towards the main entrance, she walked through the office section, before moving through the servants' quarters.

As they passed the open door to the kitchen and mess, Ranma suddenly dug her heals into the ground and brought both of them to a stop.

The vampire was about to ask why they had stopped, when a low rumble was heard.

First she thought it was thunder really far away, but then she realised it was coming from the girl she was currently trying to drag out of the mansion.

It was her stomach.

She was sniffing the air and had a dreamy expression on her face.

It was then she realised that Ranma probably hadn't eaten in a while, heck the last she remembered was when he was in the infirmary.

"Please." Ranma asked in a sugary sweet voice while his…her eyes were sparkling with unshed tears.

"umm, okay…." She said slightly disturbed.

Ranma pumped his fist in the air in victory, and then quickly disappeared through the open door. She slowly followed while shaking her head in disbelief.

Inside the kitchen Ranma was moving around from stove to stove, generally annoying the kitchen personnel to hell, while looking for anything that looked like it was finished.

He managed to find a pot with a thick soup filled with various vegetables and meat, a basket with newly baked bread, and a frying pan with some bacon.

He was balancing the basket of bread, and some dishes on his head, while holding the pot and pan with a hand each.

He was looking on an offending container of milk, before Victoria took pity on him and helped him carry it.

"Thanks." Ranma said and walked to an obscure corner of the room and placed everything on the table.

Victoria was thankful that he didn't walk into the mess, she didn't want the soldiers to stare at her and Ranma. If they didn't stare at the blonde vampire, they would definitely stare at the curvy redhead.

With inhuman speed the plates were filled with steaming food, one resting in front of her. She looked a Ranma with curious expression.

"I didn't think any of it, but I noticed you always eat liquid food, soups and such." Ranma said while munching on one of the bread pieces.

"I can eat normal food, it is just that I normally feel a little queasy afterwards, this..." She said and raised the spoon with soup.

"I can eat without any problem, it just doesn't give me sustenance." She finished and let the spoon fall back into the plate.

"I learned to enjoy the simple things in life on my travel, especially hot food. You don't always have to eat because you're hungry. Hmm… That sounded gluttonous. What I meant was that you can eat because it taste good, or because you enjoy other persons company." He said, and then quickly added the last part at Victoria's look.

She nodded slowly.

She took a spoonful of the soup and raised it to her mouth, she looked at it before shaking her head. She consumed the spoonful of soup and then looked at the pot of soup in amazement.

Her senses as a vampire were drastically increased, sight, smell, hearing, everything was increased, however she didn't usually actually eat anything anymore, except to hold up appearance in public, for a simple reason.

She could enjoy the smell of good cocked food, however every time she eaten it just tasted bland, like her sense of taste was completely muted to anything else except blood. She could distinguish the different tastes, but she couldn't actually enjoy anything anymore.

Now however it actually tasted something, not nearly as much as when she had been human, but enough so she could actually enjoy the taste.

They ate in silence, and once again she noticed the kitchen personnel looking her way, but now they seemed more interested in the redhead who seemed to have a bottomless stomach.

She was on her fifth refill of soup, and half of the bread basket was gone, by the time Victoria finished her first. A quick glare at the kitchen personnel made them turn back to what they were doing, Victoria absolutely hated being the centre of attention.

Ranma's table manners had never been the best, but they had been drastically increased without Genma in the area, and especially after M's motivational speech. That woman could scare the hell out of anyone with _that_ glare and voice.

However, most of his manners were thrown out the window, he hadn't eaten in a couple of days, and was really, _really _hungry.

She kept her eyes on the Ranma eating the soup, but then she caught a quick movement to her side. She could have sworn that one of the breads dematerialized in thin air.

She kept her eyes on the basket this time, and sure another one disappeared, but this time her vampiric eye-sight managed to see the afterimages of a hand.

Then it finally caught up with her, Ranma had fought a bunch of ghouls and vampires without problem, and had actually been able to fight on a relatively even ground with Alucard, something that no human should be able to do.

He had dodged bullets, and had even been able to throw that freaky black energy blade, something that could have been mistaken for some kind of vampire attack.

"How do you do that?" She asked Ranma who looked up from her bowl of soup.

She chewed a couple of time and then swallowed before replying.

"Do what?" Ranma asked.

"Moving that fast, you did it yesterday, and then throwing that thing at Alucard." She asked.

"Alucard?" Ranma asked again.

"The vampire you fought yesterday." She answered back.

"Oh, you mean the old ghoul that Integra said haunted the dungeons?" Ranma answered back, unconcerned that if Alucard had heard him he would have attacked the human, Integra's orders be damned.

"Yeah." She said a little disbelievingly at Ranma's lack of respect for the ancient vampire. She decided that she wouldn't correct him, she was more interested in the way he could move that fast.

"It comes from a lot of martial-arts training." He said and began to slow his eating speed to talk to Ceres.

"But there is a point when the human body can't become stronger or faster." She said.

"That isn't completely true, but I understand what you mean." He said and then took a quick sip of the glass of milk, he was now going into full sensei-mode and that led his interest away from the food.

He raised his arm a little and then a look of concentration fell over him. Ceres looked in interest, and then jumped slightly as a small spark of light appeared in his open palm, and it continued to grow in strength until it was the size of a tennis ball.

It hovered a couple of inches over his palm and pulsed slowly.

"This is what it's all about." He said and looked at the palm of light closely.

"What is it?" She asked and looked in fascination. It was hardly the pyrotechnic wonder as the black blade had been, but it was still intriguing.

"It is a physical projection of my life force, its called ki, the energy that my body generates." He said and then looked to make sure that Victoria was listening.

"The average person lack the training to access his ki, it took myself almost ten years to get to the point were I could use it consciously. The more you use your ki, the stronger your ki gets. The next step is to get your body accustomed to the energy, you definitely _don't_ want to use more then you can handle or spare, yet again the more you use it the more you can use." He said and he could see he had her attention.

"What happens if you use more then you should?" The vampire asked.

"You could permanently harm your body, or even die if you overdo it. And even if you don't you'll would be spending the foreseeable future trying to refill your ki. I have personal experience with this, I was lucky and didn't have any permanent damage, however I learned to use it moderately. I used my ki to power an attack, but I didn't have any control, and it backfired and dispersed the energy through my body instead. It lasted less then a second, but think that all your nerves in your body signal every feeling of pain all at once. It hurt, it hurt a _lot_." He said and winched at the memory, he hadn't been able to fight for a good two weeks afterwards.

"It sounds dangerous." She said.

"Not if you have a good teacher and common sense of when to stop. Unfourtuantly for me, I had neither." He said and joked a little.

Victoria looked at him with a firm gaze.

"I hope to think I have developed a common sense by now." He said after a moments uncomfortable silence.

"Attacking a vampire?" She said simply.

"Okay, everything is relative…" Ranma said and shrugged.

"Anyway, you can then use your ki for a wide variety of things, augmenting your body is one thing, that's what I did to move so fast. It can also be used together with pressure points, and no I am not kidding about this. An ability you also gain the more you use ki, is your ability to see auras, pretty nifty if you want to see how strong a person is, or if you want to see if someone is in the area. Then you can use it to power ranged attacks, like my first class demon god assault blade……"

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Alucard swiftly made his way through the building, and inside the quarters given to the new Hellsing, searching for said person.

He decided to use the normal way, and not phasing like he usually did, he didn't want a repeat of last night.

He opened the door, and could at once determine that no one had been there, all lights were out, and the bed and bathroom were untouched. Having no idea where the damn brat was he decided to check in on Victoria, she had been the one who had taken him back to the mansion.

He quickly phased through the building into the basement corridor, and the opened the heavy door to the police-girls room.

Once again he was met with a completely empty room. He turned around and was about to step out the door when something tugged on his coat hard enough to throw him to the floor.

He looked up from his position on the floor and met the crimson eyes of a large demonic feline. Said cat had a mouthful of red coat in its mouth and was wearing the feline version of a smirk.

The ancient vampire stood up while glaring murder at the vampire familiar. He really needed to talk to the police-girl about that damn cat. He tugged at his coat, but the familiar was resilient and didn't let go.

He aimed a swift kick at the feline, but it simply jumped out of the way, eyes sparkling innocently.

He didn't have time for any of these childish games with a mischievous familiar, so he phased through the building to get rid of the damn housecat.

He took a step forwards and was tugged to the floor once again, and as he looked up he could see the feline clearly smirking at the vampire.

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Ranma patted his stomach when the last of the food was gone, and the suppressed a belch with his hand, the entire thing was even more comical because he was a she at the moment.

Ranma seemed to have forgotten about the clothes they should be getting, and seemed more then content just to sit there and digest the food.

Victoria however knew that they probably should be going, they needed to get those clothes before anyone decided to ask questions about the _other_ police-girl.

"Ciao, Ceres-girl." A happy voice said from behind her. Victoria just sighed and fought back the urge to throw her hands into the air in resignation.

She turned her head around and sure enough, the Hellsing organisations very own pervert, Captain Pip Bernadotte, was standing behind her.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see Ranma looking the captain up and down as if he was evaluating him.

"And who might you be?" Pip continued and quickly focused his single eye on the curvy redhead sitting opposite Victoria.

"Names Saotome." The redhead replied and her eyes narrowed dangerously, she didn't like the look in the Captains eye.

"We should probably get going." Victoria said to Ranma, hoping that Ranma would remember why they were there.

Ranma only nodded in reply, and stood up.

"Before I forget, Victoria, Walter just told me the boss needed to speak with you, something about a missed health check?" Pip said and then turned towards the redhead again.

Both Victoria and Ranma sighed at this, but then nodded and walked towards the door, the good captain was following a couple of steps behind admiring the view.

The woman, and the man turned woman, were feeling _slightly_ annoyed, especially as he began to sing a rather rude song about eskimos' .

The walk to Integra's office felt like an eternity to the two, and Ranma was just happy at being able to knock on the damn door.

Pip sat down on one of the couches, and began to hastily look through a folder he was carrying.

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Integra was talking to Walter, when a knock on the door interrupted her.

"Come in." She said and was surprised as the door was opened by a girl in Hellsing uniform, a girl that wasn't Victoria.

She then recognised the girl as the cursed form of nephew, who was wearing a rather irritated frown.

"I need to speak with her alone Walter." She said to the Hellsing retainer, who didn't know of her nephew's shape-shifting abilities, and the vampire standing a few feet behind Ranma.

Walter nodded, and without anyone noticing put his monofilament wires back into his pocket, he had been paranoid ever since that incident with the vampire Carmilla pretending to be Lady Hellsing's sister.

The door behind her closed, and Integra was slightly disturbed by the attire Ranma was wearing.

"Not a word about the clothes." He said at the look Integra was giving him, there was a little bit of anger in the voice.

"All of my clothes are either destroyed, or in the washing machine, Victoria gave me these" He continued.

"Ahh." Integra said in relief, she didn't need a cross dresser in the family… She took a look on her own clothes and then decided to clarify that thought, a woman dressing as a male was okay, a male dressing as a woman was not.

"I was on the way to my apartment to get some spare clothing, but we got sidetracked." Ranma said and shrugged.

"Back to matters at hand, you haven't been to the promised health check." She said and looked at her nephew.

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Victoria was staring at the Captain, he was being more then unbearable and she had to use every ounce of willpower not to throw the nearest blunt object at him. Her left hand twitched violently, the heavy marble ashtray on a small table next to her looked really promising.

The one thing holding her back wasn't fear of hurting the captain, but the fact that she was outside Integra's office, and Walther was working in the room opposite it.

She took a deep breath and slowly began to count to ten.

She calmed down and closed her eyes, if she didn't see his stares, she wouldn't be bothered by them, right?

Pip then decided to say a particularly lewd comment about the redhead, and Victoria's eyes snapped open in response.

She stood up quickly and her eyes were filled with anger. She'd had enough from the captain, any other day and she wouldn't have bothered, but today she wasn't in the mood and simply didn't have the patience.

She had crossed half the distance and Pip gulped loudly and began to sweat. The police girl had never reacted this way before, it had always been some harmless fun in aggravating the fledgling vampire, she had never shown violent tendencies before.

The captain was in luck, because the door leading to the office opened and the redheaded girl that was with Ceres stepped out.

Ceres stopped, took a good look at Ranma, back at the captain, and then a wicked smile spread across her face. She hoped that her plan of action would work and Pip would just back off.

She stalked up to Ranma and leaned down so that she could whisper into the shorter girl's ear.

"Sorry about this." She whispered, grabbed hold of the redheads head, and then proceeded to give Ranma the mother of all kisses.

The captain's mouth opened in shock, and he could only sit and stare at the exchange between the two curvy girls.

The kiss ended as Ranma needed to get some air, but he had a glassy look in his eyes.

Pip finally managed to speak, and whatever Victoria thought Pip would say it wasn't what he said.

"Damn girl! I knew you had it in you, you finally let our inner pervert out. Have you any idea how freaking hot that was!" He said with undisguised pride in his voice.

Bernadotte had a silly grin on his face as he said that, and Victoria just sighed in total and utter defeat. Pip didn't notice, he just continued to ramble on.

Ranma snapped out of his daze, and threw a dirty look at Pip, before casting a less irritated one at Victoria.

"He just won't leave me alone!" She said in defence, and Ranma turned back to the captain.

"I am sure as hell no innocent virgin, but I have never seen a woman deep-throat another woman's tongue befo…GAAHH! The captain continued deliriously happy, but was cut off as Ranma stalked up and grabbed Pip around the neck, and then lifted him into the air with one hand.

"You. Leave. Us. Alone!" Ranma said and jabbed a finger, to punctuate his words, into the chest of the captain, who was gasping for air while desperately struggling to break the girls grip on his throat.

"Kay'" He gasped out, and then dropped to the floor heavily as Ranma loosened his grip.

After a while he regained his breath, and cast a strange look at the two women.

"Another vampire?" He asked Victoria.

"No, just a really pissed off human." Ranma answered.

"O-kay…. I think I must be going now, the boss is waiting for my report." Pip said and motioned to the folder that had fallen to the floor.

Ranma turned around and walked away, closely followed by Victoria. She rubbed her arm and grimaced a little.

"Did you really have to do that?" Victoria asked and sighed.

"Small hints wont work, large hints wont work, obvious hints wont work, if you want him to stop just say it to him directly… Preferably with threats of blunt trauma as consequence if he won't listen." Ranma said and grimaced again.

"Are you all right?" Victoria asked as she saw Ranma's expression.

Ranma stopped and leaned against the wall and took a deep breath.

"God, I feel like hell." Ranma stumbled and slid down to a sitting position.

"What's wrong?" Victoria asked and walked up to the redhead.

"I shouldn't have done that, my body is in worse condition then I thought… Really low ki." Ranma answered and stood up on wobbly feet.

"Are you sure you shouldn't just go back to sleep?" Ceres asked and took a good grip on Ranma's arm to steady her.

"You know what? That sound like a really good idea…" Ranma answered tiredly. The fights and lack of food the last few days had taken its toll on his body, and what he really needed now was a couple of weeks of rest and relaxation before he was back in top condition.

While all his cuts, and most of his bruises were healed, the strain he had put his body through was still evident, he would probably feel like a 90 year old man the foreseeable future.

He was just happy he had vacation from his job, he had maintained a perfect record, something Miss Hinako would have thought was impossible, and he didn't want to break it now.

The young vampire helped the gender-changing martial artist stand up straight, and then they slowly walked back down towards Ceres room. Victoria had to occasionally steady Ranma as he was a bit wobbly on his feet.

She opened the door to the redhead who promptly fell over onto the couch once inside.

The male turned female just looked up at the ceiling lazily, before focusing her eyes on the blonde vampire.

"I am not taking up your time at work am I?" He said after awhile of silence.

"Nah, the soldiers all have hand to hand training this week, and a couple of months back I was banned from participating in any such events, so usually I just catch up with any paperwork that isn't done." She answered and sat down on her open coffin/bed.

"Paperwork, the bane of my existence." He said with a groan and lazily laid a hand on his forehead.

"Hardly the same amount as when I worked for the police, here I just write an occasional after-action report, there I spent more time filling out paperwork then actually training with the anti-terror units." She answered and laid down on the bed on her stomach and rested her head on her arms to look at Ranma.

"I have to hand in a written evaluation of every single trainee' to my superiors… And I'm not even sure they read the bloody things." He said and tiredly flexed his back, soft popping sounds of joints falling in place were heard.

"So you work as a drill instructor in the army?" Victoria asked, both had, with very good reason, avoided the subject of their work.

"Nah, however much my students say I act that way, I'm not a drill instructor. I work for the government and train a wide array of people in hand to hand combat, mostly police or Intelligence, and occasionally the military.

"Intelligence? Like Secret Agent Pierce Brosnan in the movies?" She asked and referred to the popular Agent Omega movies. She had always loved to watch the older movies when she had been a child.

"Only paper-pushers I'm afraid." He answered with a smile.

"Drat, there goes my dream about heroic spies saving the world." She said with a laugh.

Ranma only chuckled, which then turned into a violent cough. After he stopped he just shook his head and let it fall back into the armrest of the couch.

"Ughh… You don't mind if I just lounge around here today, do you?" He said and grimaced.

"If you even _think _about walking around, I'll chain you to the bed." She answered, worry was evident in her voice.

"Didn't know you were into that." He managed to get out through aloud yawn.

Ceres face flushed in embarrassment at Ranma's teasing.

Ranma in turn just stretched an arm into the air, yawned, and finally turned around before closing his eyes in an attempt to sleep.

Ceres looked at the sleeping redhead for awhile before standing up and walking over to one of the bookshelves lining the wall, she turned on the small stereo and turned down the volume as not to disturb the sleeping martial artist.

As the slow, calm sound began to drift throughout the room she picked up one of the numerous books from one of the shelves and then walked back to her bed.

She had begun to read a larger assortment of books as a result of being turned into a vampire, there weren't exactly many things she could do during her free time, she finally understood why Helena had lived in a library.

The solitude was relaxing.

Her train of thought was interrupted by a small feeling in the back of her head, a feeling she had connected with Alucard phasing into her room.

She looked up and expected to see Alucard standing there, but was instead greeted by the sight of a large black panther staring at her.

"What's that in your mouth?" Ceres asked as the cat walked over to her, a large piece of red cloth was hanging from the maw of the creature.

It dropped the cloth by her feet and then turned its head to look at Ranma, and then silently stalked over to the sleeping martial artist.

It placed its front paws on the coucj in preparation of jumping into it, something that would without doubt wake up Ranma and scare the hell out of him.

"Go away, he needs sleep, and your to large to cuddle with him, you'll wake him up!" She hissed at the cat and made gestures with her hands to scare the cat away.

Said feline just turned around and walked over to the vampire.

It growled at her quietly, in a manner that reminded her of the way the familiar had acted toward Alucard the night before when the vampire had threatened Ranma.

Ceres, be it because of her connection with the creature, or her female intuition, then understood why.

Felines are very territorial by nature, and the cat considered Ranma its territory.

"OH NO! He's mine!" She half hissed, half growled in a catlike manner at her familiar.

Her fingernails lengthened, as did her teeth, and the irises of her eyes became more ferial, in preparation of a fight.

It appeared that vampires were also very territorial.

Ceres would definitely _not_ lose her boyfriend because of some demonic feline feeling a bit possessive… Especially not when the feline in question was her own damn familiar.

They both stared at each other, each waiting for the other to make the first move.

"You are too large to cuddle with him!" She hissed out through clenched teeth.

The feline made a quick nodding motion with its head in her direction, and she got the distinct feeling it meant _"So are you!"_

"No, I am the perfect size to cuddle with!" She hissed back.

The cat only snorted in amusement at that.

The vampire's eyes narrowed dangerously, and then she turned towards the sleeping martial artist. She grabbed her pillow and blanket and then moved over to the couch.

This time it was the cat's eyes that narrowed. _"Don't you dare!" _ The look said.

"I'm his girlfriend!" The vampire hissed.

"_No your not!" _ The roll of the feline's eyes said.

Victoria didn't answer, she just lifted Ranma's head so she could lay the pillow under it, then she threw a blanket over the sleeping redhead, before crawling under it to join the sleeping girl.

"MINE!" Victoria hissed and cuddled up to Ranma.

She sighed after awhile, her eyes, fingernails, and teeth returning to normal, her out of control emotions turning into happy satisfaction.

If just felt good cuddling with her boyfriend, even though he was her girlfriend for the moment.

She opened her eyes to make sure the panther didn't to anything, she really didn't want a 200 kilos cat jumping on her, vampire powers or not.

The cat in question gave her a long stare, and then fell to the floor in a pool of black oily substance. Numerous ripples crossed the surface, like something was moving underneath.

The black pool quickly shrunk, from covering half the floor, it soon only covered the expanse underneath the table.

A small paw broke free from the surface, followed by the head and body of a small cat.

The small pool seemed to surge up the legs of the creature and then disappeared completely. The feline just stood and stared at her, its head tilted to one side.

The familiar suddenly moved forwards with speeds befitting a vampire's familiar, and landed softly on Victoria's stomach.

The cat only yawned and then stretched its body.

The familiar then took a few quick steps on the bodies of the sleeping martial artists, and his vampire companion, spun around in a quick circle, and then curled up in a small ball between the two girls.

Victoria's eyes twitched, but she didn't do anything more then cast a quick glare at the small fur-ball.

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"Herr Major?" A man wearing a twisted version of a doctor's getup asked a short, obese man shrouded in darkness. The man was sitting on an elevated throne-like chair overlooking a darkened room, the only illumination coming from the massive screens covering the darkened walls and rows upon rows of monitors.

Numerous dark shapes were seen walking from monitor to monitor.

"Yes, what's the matter?"

"The results from the different projects just arrived." The man said and quickly looked through the paper in his hand.

"And?" The man asked sounding thoroughly bored.

"As expected, the arcane branch, under the lead of Captain Schmidt, has been unable to achieve anything more then ghouls, and even that with extreme difficulty. Either our men aren't adept at necromancy, or many of the instructions to the rituals are missing, considering that we only managed to retrieve a small part of all the texts it isn't surprising. We never really had that much to begin with, not as much as Hellsing, and no where near the amount of arcane knowledge the Vatican posses. If we could just…" The man sounded insistent near the end.

"No, we have discussed this already. Continue." The man cut of the doctor.

"Yes, Herr Major. During their failed attempts to resurrect the dead they stumbled upon a few rituals that summons demons, they were extremely careful and made sure they didn't summon anything they couldn't control and send back in a moments notice. It isn't what we were looking for but it might be of interest." The doctor stopped and waited for the other mans comment.

"I've heard about Schmidt ventures into demonology, but we will still have to class Project-A as a failure. Schmidt shall however remain in the bunker in the Alps and continue on a different project with the objective of finding out more about demonology and its potential benefits." The man said with a slight smirk on his lips.

"Project-B is somewhat more successful, the medical corporation acting as cover has proven not only to work, but has been so successful as to fund other of our branches, and has also proven to give us a large influence on the world market. The project itself has proven only to be marginally more successful then Project-A, we have been able engineer a aerial-borne virus that that reanimates dead tissue, but we never get anything more then ghouls. It can however be produced in vast quantities and distributed much easier then anything else we have found so far. We have postponed the small covert field tests until our new labs are done, it's simply to contagious." The doctor answered with a grin that said that he didn't care if it was contagious or not.

"I've seen the video samples on the preliminary effects of the virus, they were quite…interesting. I must applaud Umbrella's little creation. How long before we have a clear idea what its full potential is?" The man said with eyes filled of sadistic glee.

"The Hive will be done in about six months." The doctor answered.

"Project-C?" The major asked with a cruel smile on his lips.

"Despite the setback in Hong Kong, we have the facilities up and running, and the field testing in Britain is in its finishing stages. We have been able to get rid of all the prototypes faults, the first being that it only turned out ghouls. That was one of the first things we fixed.

The second being that we have been able to tone down the blood-lust to manageable levels. The first chip-vampires were so filled with blood-lust and berserker rage that they were beyond all rational thought, this version doesn't have that problem. The strength and abilities of the vampires turned by this version is considerable greater then the older ones. However, the vampire blood we used to make the artificial blood inside the chips have given its strength, but also its weaknesses, subjects are still weak against the normal banes of a vampire. We have finished all preparations, we have a couple of field tests left but they are more for fun then anything else." The doctor said with a smirk.

"Good, we will soon finished what we began so long ago. Operation Millennium is coming along as planned, and soon we will finally have our letzte battalion." The man said and then stood up with difficulty, light falling upon his features. The man appeared to be in his late eighties, early nineties, and he was wearing glasses. He, like all the others, had been waiting for this for more then fifty years, being kept alive by the strange chemicals/potions provided by the good doctor.

As he slowly walked down the small stairs the twin lightning bolts upon the man's collar was seen, forming a crude SS.

The massive banner with the swastika on it hanging behind the chair made no doubt of what kind of soldiers these were.

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Ceres Victoria slowly drifted back to consciousness from the shadowy realm that was vampire-sleep. As always she felt a bit cold waking up in the dungeons, and so pulled the warm object she was holding closer. The object in question snuggled closer and pulled the blanket tighter around them.

As she opened her eyes she was met by a mop of bright red obscuring her vision. She moved her hand, still half asleep, and tried to move the inconvenient item from her eyes.

Her movement elected a long, muffled groan from the general area of her chest.

She looked down and found out that she had pulled Ranma's head closer, unintentionally placing the redheads face firmly between her breasts.

She loosened her grip on the martial artist head and allowed him to once again breathe, said martial artist just mumbled and turned around a little before falling into deep slumber again.

Victoria just shock her head and smiled, and then stretched an arm over hear head to work out all the kinks in her back.

She carefully, with unnatural grace, slid from the couch onto her feet, and then took a quick look at the watch. She made sure Ranma still was asleep, and then walked into the bathroom. She closed and locked the door, and then walked past the small shower-stall and up to the bathtub.

While it would be quicker to take a shower she preferred a long hot soak, and Ranma wouldn't wake anytime soon, it was pretty early, or late, depending if you were a human or vampire.

With a quick movement of her hand warm, almost boiling water began to pour into the tub. She quickly stripped and threw her clothes in the laundry basket, and then proceeded to slowly sink down into the water with an audible sigh of delight.

There were few things in life…un-life, as relaxing as a simple hot bath.

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Alucard was beginning to get annoyed, really, _really_ annoyed.

He hadn't found his masters damn nephew, so he had decided to go back to his dungeon and bid his time, sooner or later he was bound to show up.

Unfortunately as soon as he had entered his rooms he had been ambushed by the police-girls house cat again, and he had hoped to be rid of the damn thing.

The thing had harassed him for the better part of the night, and the last bit of his temper had finally run out.

He looked at the demonic feline, two pair of eyes were staring at each other.

The cat had changed shape and size numerous times during the night, from a normal panther, to something that looked somewhat like a black tiger, and one time to what must had been a pre-historic feline…

It had looked like a black sabre-toothed tiger, if said feline had been the size of a larger Main Battle Tank….

The teeth must have been at least a meter and half.

The thing had been _huge. _

Whatever faults the police-girl had, she sure as hell had an impressive familiar…

He looked down at the familiar who now was a cute little kitten scratching and clawing halfway up his leg.

Well, impressive sometimes.

With a quick move of his leg he shoot the cat across the room with a speed rivalling most bullets.

He was slightly disappointed, but not surprised when the feline didn't become a gory smear on the wall, but instead phased through it. It would have been too good to be true to get rid of the damn thing that way.

It appeared to have phased out behind him, and with about the same velocity, for the feline projectile hit the back of the vampire's head with a resounding SMACK.

Both cat and vampire growled irritated.

He grabbed the scruff of the cat's neck and phased through the building towards Victoria's quarters.

He appeared out from one of the walls, and took a good look around the room, the familiar in the vampire's hand had disappeared during the transit. He shook his head, he really needed to talk to the girl about that damn cat.

Alucard could hear the tunes of slow relaxing music coming from the stereo, but it wasn't any music he was familiar with.

As the ancient vampire looked around he spotted an assortment of familiar weapons. A pair of katanas' in simple but elegant and functional scabbards, but the thing that made him look twice was the small row of throwing daggers secured in simple leather sheaths.

He walked up to the weapons and picked up one of the daggers, and sure enough on the hilt a finely crafted seal of the Hellsing family was engraved. The daggers had from the beginning belonged to Abraham van Hellsing himself, the man who had fought and bound him to the Hellsing family.

The blades must have slain untold vampires and ghouls, but as Van Hellsing had died the weapons had been turned into purely ceremonial daggers, rarely having any use except to show that the owner belonged to the Hellsing family.

Last he had seen them were before he had been imprisoned in the dungeons, they had been placed on display, the blades gone dull after so many years of neglect.

Alucard shook his head, the old man would surely have turned in his grave if he knew what had happened with his tools.

He carefully gripped the hilt and pulled out the dagger, surprised when it easily slid out.

The blade looked nothing like he remembered it, it had been polished to mirror sheen, nothing like the matte it had been before. He carefully traced the edge with his finger, and was surprised when he cut himself through his gloves, the thing was many times sharper then any razor.

He also noticed a thin layer of oil over the entire surface of the blade, to protect against corrosion and to make it easier to slide the dagger from its sheath.

Someone had gone through great lengths to make it fit for combat once again.

"Guess someone finally saw the value in these weapons." He chuckled softly.

He placed the dagger down, and picked up one of the swords, surprised as it was heavier then it looked.

The blade was perfectly balanced and as well kept and sharp as the daggers, together with the added weight the thing would be able to cut steel.

He had found the brats weapons, now where was the brat himself?

He carefully put the sword back, and continued to look over the room. While his own room held very few possessions, Victoria had filled hers with an assortment of trinkets, nothing of any monetary worth, just sentimental value.

All this, together with the dim lightning, gave her room a feel of romantic medieval mystique, you wouldn't have been surprised if one of Arthur's knights would step through the door.

His own room also had a medieval feel to it, but it was more along the lines of a torture chamber.

He shook his head to clear away the stray thought, and continued to look around.

He found the police-girl curled up in a ball on the couch, with a pillow over her head.

"Police-Girl" He said and waited for her to respond.

She didn't move.

"Police-Girl" He said a little louder.

Nothing.

He walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder to wake her up.

She turned around in her sleep and smacked his hand away.

He took a step back at the sudden movement, but then returned his hand to her shoulder and gave her a shake.

This time the blow forced him to step back.

Irritated he took a step forward and took a good grip of her arm.

The response was quite violent this time, she grabbed on to his wrist and turned around, throwing him over the couch in a strange judo throw.

He didn't get time to brace for impact, he just slammed into the wall, hard.

With his back on the floor, and legs sticking up in the air resting against the wall, he was quite a comical sight.

He pushed himself to his feet, and turned around and cast a quick glare at the couch.

The girl just continued to sleep like nothing had happened.

He walked over to the couch, and leaned forward.

He stood up and stalked up to the couch, and grabbed the pillow. He just didn't have the patience to deal with this.

"WAKE UP NOW!" He yelled into the face of Victoria…

Since when had Victoria red hair?

For that matter since when had she had blue eyes?

"Wazzup?" The girl said groggily and blinked her eyes a couple of times before she focused on Alucard

The room fell into silence, only interrupted by the stereo, both looking at each other tensely. Recognition flashed in azure blue eyes, still half asleep.

Alucard saw as the girl slowly moved her hand and took a good grip on one of the swords, but she never broke eye-contact with him. The blue eyes were unnaturally calm.

As the last vestige of sleep disappeared from Ranma's eyes, he finally recognised the male vampire that was supposed to work for Hellsing.

What had Victoria said his name was again? Wallubard? Leonard? Retard? Alutard? Alucard…

Alucard, yeah, that was his name.

"Alucard?" Ranma asked once, just to be sure.

The vampire tilted his head to the side in question.

"That is my name." The vampire answered.

"Then would you please get out of my face." She said coldly, eyes flashing dangerously.

Alucard was impressed, those ice-blue eyes was almost in the same league as Integra.

To reinforce her request Ranma began to slide the sword from its scabbard, the cold metal sound echoing eerily across the dark room.

Alucard smirked at her, but took a step backwards. He had the feeling this girl would be extremely satisfying to terrorise, somewhat like Integra.

However just ticking her off would be childish.

The girl sat up on the couch, but winched and clutched her ribs, a small trickle of blood made its way from the edge of her mouth. She loosened her grip on the sword, and instead placed her hand over her stomach.

"What do you want?" She said with as much venom as she could muster.

She realised she had something on her chin, and wiped the blood away.

"I was looking for two people, one owns those weapons..." He answered and motioned with his hand to the table.

Did her eye just twitch?

He looked at her and could see she was in quite a bit of pain.

"The other one lives here." He finished.

As he said that the girl looked around, as if looking for someone.

"They aren't here, so leave." She said and looked at him, she appeared to have trouble to focus her eyes.

Alucard nodded and then faded away, he had no reason to stay, they weren't there, and the girl seemed more and more out of it.

He did wonder what the girl was doing in Victoria's room, but dismissed the idea, there had been nothing unusual about her, save perhaps her injuries.

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Ranma looked up as he heard the bathroom door open. His head was spinning uncomfortable at every sudden movement.

His little acrobatic show inside Integra's office to show he was okay had backfired.

Why the hell did he play the macho-man?

His stomach and chest hurt like hell, he had probably strained a good deal of his half healed internal organs in that little display.

Victoria stepped out of the bathroom, and in his half daze he didn't notice she wasn't wearing anything more then a towel wrapped around her body.

She used another towel to dry her hair.

He felt himself cough, and as he pulled his hand away it was covered in blood.

He gritted his teeth, and then began to pull in every bit of ki he had available, which wasn't much.

He just increased his metabolism and healing, but also increased his rehabilitation time.

With no ki available, his body began to ache like hell, he just felt like a 90 year old man with rheumatism.

The pain was immense.

He could feel his body's natural painkillers set in, a lot more potent now when he didn't have any ki to negate it.

His vision began to blur

"Ranma?" Victoria asked, she didn't think he would be awake.

He groaned loudly, but she could tell the groan wasn't because of her state of undress. He began to groggily look around, he didn't even seem to realize she was there.

When he fell to the side on the couch, she quickly closed the distance and began to look him over.

The blue eyes seemed glassy, other then that he looked fine. Her vampire instincts, that she usually suppressed, told her something else. She could smell the blood under Ranma's pale skin, the sweet smell bringing out more and more of her vampire side.

She could hear the steady loud heartbeat, hear as it raced through the veins and arteries of the dangerously strong, but still mortal body.

She could hear were it diverted and changed unnaturally forming harmless small bruises, most of them would soon be gone, others were already healing.

Everything seemed fine, except…

She quickly began to unbutton the redheads uniform, and pulled it open to expose naked flesh underneath.

"_So she _didn't_ use a bra"_ A small part of her mind said, the rest were occupied elsewhere.

Under the left breast a massive purple bruise covering most of her left side was adorning her body. It looked ugly and quite dangerous, and the part of her that had once been a field medic said that it had to be severe internal bleeding.

She softly traced the bruise with a long pale finger, going on instinct. It elected a long painful hiss from the girl being examined.

While the bruise was large and dangerous, it had already begun the first stages of healing. She could feel as the blood vessels and arteries under the skin began to mend, faster then any normal human would have been able to. He wasn't in the danger zone any longer, but it would hurt for some time, she didn't know how she knew it, but she did.

"Be careful." She could hear Ranma whisper.

She looked up, and could see that he had regained his senses.

She nodded in affirmative and looked at the tired and sweaty form of the redhead.

She could see that Ranma was in quite a bit off pain, he had pulled his hands into fists, and gritted his teeth.

His breathes came in short quick hisses, and sweat poured down his face and chest.

"Don't move." She said and stood up.

She walked over to one of the drawers, still with only a towel wrapped around her body.

Victoria pulled something from one of the drawers, and walked back to Ranma.

She kneeled besides him, and now he could see what it was, a field medic's kit.

She picked up a smaller box from the field kit and opened it to display a wide variety of drugs a field medic might find need for.

She took a small one-use syringe filled with a clear fluid, the black letters printed on the side said it was morphine.

She pulled out a small cotton ball, and covered it with medical alcohol from a squeeze bottle.

She softly cleaned the area around his neck, and then pressed the needle against the redhead's skin.

Ranma softly moved her hand away, making Victoria drop the syringe.

"No drugs." The redhead whispered hoarsely.

"You won't be able to sleep or move with that bruise." Victoria said and picked up the syringe.

Ranma just shook his head.

"No drugs, it will mess up my metabolism." Ranma said and looked at Victoria.

His body had become accustomed to a wide variety of drugs and poisons in Nerima, or more accurately, his body had, with a lot of help from his ki, been able to neutralize and get them through his system a lot faster.

His ki had unconsciously begun to accelerate the process as soon as soon as any substance entered his system, and that included painkillers which now was virtually useless on him.

It took a great deal of concentration and effort to negate this from happening, effort and concentration he didn't have right now.

As soon as the drug would have entered his system his body would have begun to draw ki from his reserve to neutralize it, ki that he didn't have. Instead it would draw from that small amount that was healing his injuries.

That was something that he didn't want.

He explained it to Victoria who nodded in understanding. She placed the syringe back into the field kit, and showed it under the couch.

Victoria looked at him, but didn't say a word.

Ranma succumbed into a violent coughing fit, but this time he didn't cough blood. Once again Victoria stood up and walked across the room. She opened a cabinet and pulled out a bottle and two glasses.

She walked back to the couch, placed the glasses on the table and began to unscrew the cork.

She poured a good amount of amber fluid into the glasses and then placed the bottle of the table.

Victoria handed one of the glasses to Ranma who looked doubtfully at the vampire.

"Same problem with alcohol?" Victoria asked the martial artist.

"Strangely enough, no." Ranma said, and that was true, he could fight off some of the strongest drugs, but alcohol still gave him trouble.

He swirled the glass unenthusiastically a couple of times, making the liquid splash.

Ranma raised his glass, and then tipped it backwards and gulped it down in a single sweep.

Victoria raised a blonde eyebrow while taking a small zip of her own.

Ranma's eyes opened comically, and he grabbed his throat with the hand not holding the glass.

He gasped loudly and coughed a couple of times.

"What the hell is this?" Ranma croaked out and looked in distaste at the glass in his hand.

"Whiskey, never had it before?" She asked and looked at Ranma.

"No, I usually keep myself to the things that don't ignite." Ranma said as he finally regained his breathe.

"I am not particularly fond of hard liquor either, but Walter gave me a couple of bottles to put into the tea to warm me up if it got cold." She said and took a small zip again.

"Warm me up it did, or more like it burned my throat." He said and rubbed his neck.

"You know you aren't supposed to chug it like it was simple beer?" She said and noticed that Ranma blushed at that.

She poured some more whiskey into his glass, and handed it back.

"Take small sips, it's easier to drink that way." She said took a small sip herself.

Victoria had never been one to drink, but when the lack a blood made her feel so unnaturally cold, a coldness that went to the very bone, a cup of tea with a bit of whiskey in it chased away the chill for a short period of time.

Ranma took another go at the whiskey, but this time he followed Ceres advice. He still grimaced, but he didn't cough.

He finished his second glass, and Victoria poured him a third. He didn't seem to enjoy the taste of whiskey, but he welcomed the dulled perception the alcohol brought.

He had just finished his third glass when the alcohol finally began to set in, the ache in his chest was still there, but not as noticeable as before.

Victoria poured Ranma a fourth glass, she herself was on her second.

"Are trying to get me drunk so you can take advantage of me? Ranma asked teasingly and wiped some sweat from his brow.

He faked an expression of fearful uncertainty, like a small lost girl. Victoria had the impression the alcohol was helping him joke about the curse, Ranma had seemed nothing but resigned about it, he could live with it but he didn't like it.

Victoria looked at the redhead and had to fight the urge to laugh.

Ranma's shirt was still open, exposing a generous amount of cleavage and taut stomach, all glistening in the low light because of all the sweat. The redhead was half sitting half lying lazily on the couch, head being held up by a hand, elbow resting on the armrest. The other hand was twirling the glass between her fingers.

Ranma hadn't realized it, but her entire posture was screaming of sex, had it not been for the bruise she would have been more like a redheaded succubus then an innocent little girl.

Ranma wiped the sweat from his brow, he had been perspiring an awful lot, his hair plastered in stripes to his forehead. He shivered a little, and pulled the blanket up to her head, he thought the temperature had grown increasingly colder.

He yawned and placed the glass on the table, drinking was one thing, drinking so you couldn't see straight was another thing entirely.

"How are you feeling." Victoria asked as she saw the redhead pull up the blanket.

"Its freezing in here, don't know how you can stand it." Ranma said and wiped his brow again, his entire face was glistening with sweat.

Victoria looked at Ranma for a moment and then placed her hand over the redhead forehead.

"God, your burning." She said when she removed her hand.

"Fever. When it rains it pours." Ranma said tiredly as he heard the vampire's evaluation.

He pulled the blanket tightly around him, he remembered some of the times he had fever during his training trip, and shivered violently. Sleeping outside during winter was never fun, doing it with fever was even worse.

The vampire stood up suddenly, marched across the room to the coffin/bed and opened a large chest at the foot of the bed. She kneeled down and disappeared from sight.

Ranma could only blink as a series of pillows, blankets and bedspreads sailed through the air to land on the bed.

When the pile had had reached the size of a smaller mountain, the throwing stopped and the blonde vampire reappeared.

The blonde vampire began to methodically and critically move the things lying on the bed, sometimes she didn't seem satisfied with the pillow lying _there_, so she moved it _there,_ butthen she had to move _that_ pillow _there_ instead.

Ranma looked on at the complicated arrangement on the bed but lost track after only a few moments, it was more complicated then most of his katas.

The vampire stood up, and critically examined her handiwork, she seemed satisfied with the results and nodded to herself.

Ranma couldn't see any difference.

She turned to the redhead, who now had pulled the blanket over her head.

"Ranma?" The blonde vampire asked the now shivering lump under the blanket.

"Okay, just cold." The lump replied.

The fledgling vampire walked over to the couch and placed her hand over the spot where Ranma's head would be under the blanket.

"Would you please stand up?" The vampire asked and pulled the blanket away.

"GAAH! COLD!" The redhead said and shivered as the cold air touched bare skin.

The redhead made a half-hearted attempt to pull the blanket back, but accomplished nothing more then making the blond throw the blanket away.

The fever, alcohol and injuries made all his moves sluggish and uncoordinated.

"Stand up." The blonde ordered and Ranma slowly moved, sitting up and moved her feet to the floor.

The girl grimaced and clutched her side, but was helped by Ceres to stand up. She wobbled a little but steadied herself after a moment.

"Please take the shirt off." Victoria said, and Ranma, either to tired to argue or to out of it to care complied and handed the ruffled shirt to the vampire.

Ceras just threw it on the couch and began to manoeuvre the martial artist towards the open coffin, copying her actions from the night before when she had led the martial artist there after his fight with Alucard.

The redheaded martial artist carefully sat down on the bed, and pulled her feet up on the bed with a grimace, her stomach still hurt as hell.

Ranma laid down, and fired of a quick string of the vilest curses he could in Japanese at everything he could think of, freaky ancient vampires especially, but his eyes showed he wasn't completely there.

Victoria didn't know what he had said, but by the way he said it suggested that she didn't want to know, however, the impression was ruined when all the curses came our from between violently rattling teeth.

The apprentice vampire rolled the martial artist over, and slid down beside her boyfriend, currently girlfriend.

She curled up beside the redhead, and then reached out and grabbed the edge of one of the blankets. The redhead virtually glued herself to the vampire for warmth, nuzzling her cheek and shoulder unconsciously, the vampire wasn't sure if he was asleep or not.

Ceras pulled the corner of a blanket over her and Ranma, and seemingly all the blankets and covers followed.

The redheads shivering began to decrease, but didn't stop completely.

Victoria could feel how the redhead began to move around a little, and she could feel the bedcovers tighten around her. Ranma, like many other people when they had fever, had wrapped himself in blankets, and from the outside best resembled a cocoon.

Ranma stopped moving, and then wrapped her arms around the vampire to pull the soft source of warmth closer, Victoria didn't resist and placed her own arms around the girl next to her.

Ranma began to softly kiss and nibble on her neck, but the soft steady breathing assured the vampire the martial artist was asleep.

Victoria tried to do the same, but Ranma's activates on her neck made that pretty hard.

She had resist to moan, but let out a soft hiss filled with pleasure instead, when Ranma kissed the spot where she had been bitten, the twin punctures had healed long ago, but they had remained extremely sensitive.

She grabbed a handful of sheath as that happened, and tried her best to crush it in her palm.

She grabbed Ranma's head and kissed him, he _had _to stop kissing her neck, or else she would go feral, she didn't want to let the vampire in her out again.

Ranma seemed more then satisfied to kiss her lips, and after few more minutes he finally fell into a deep dreamless sleep.

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**Authors notes:**

Well, I'm back from the dead, with a new chapter…

Not as much action in this one, more story with the bad guys, romance between the fledgling vampire and rookie vampire hunter, Pip in a small role, and of course our own psychotic vampire lord…

Next time we will see why Alucard is so intent on finding Ranma, more with Bond and perhaps a bit with my own favourite housecat…..(Anyone have a good idea for a name to the damn cat? I can't give a pet a good name if my life depended on it, if a give it one it would probably suck.)

The freak vampire stared at the large black monstrosity moving down the alley and cutting down his ghouls. He turned around and tried to run, but didn't get far, a shadow tackled him to the hard ground.

He looked up at the merciless red eyes of the hellcat, razor sharp fangs glistering in the light of a single streetlamp, saliva dripping onto his face, but he was too scared to wipe it away.

As the maw descended on him the last thing he saw was the red choker with the words "Mr Tibbles" engraved on the side.

It took me some time to get this finished (from the beginning I had the idea to have Christmas (2004) scene in it, but when I returned to it in June after working on Halo of the Hero it didn't feel right.)

When my summer vacation began I tried to get a summer job but everything was already filled, and I mean _everything_, from cell phone repair to septic tank cleaners.

I found other ways to preoccupy my time (hangover in the morning more often then not), so I didn't really have the time to work on it.

I simply had more important things to worry about then to work on this…. Now that school started again I finally had nothing better to do. See you next time! ( I will write faster, or make shorter chapters, either way it won't take as much time this time.)

**REVIEW! **

**Xerxez- "Is there such a thing as phantom hangovers?"**


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